Interdependence
by Jinnyah
Summary: A telekinetic girl joins the team, a girl who has discovered a glitch in the Matrix. But Agent Jones (guess who's place he's taken) is determined to use her weakness - dependence on the matrix - to force her to betray her friends...*CH8!!!* R&R PLEEZ!!!
1. Trapped

I'd like to mention this is my first time writing fanfic, so please don't be too harsh on me! This first chapter takes place in about the middle of the plot and Lynx, my protagonist, is the girl with special powers who's the newest member of the team. I decided to start with some action, cause if I don't, I'll never get to it! (sheepish laugh)

R&R PLEEEEAAASSSEEEEEEEEE :-) :-) :-)

Enjoy!

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"Well, well, Miss Raines. We meet again."

They always call you by your last name. That's the most annoying thing about agents.

But Lynx wasn't thinking about that. There she was, trapped in this building after the Matrix has been changed - the building had no more windows. The agent was right in front of her, blocking the only escape route. She was starting to panic, seeing those dark shades and that ugly suit again, but did everything she could to stay calm. 

__

He'd expect me to make a run for it, she thought. _So I'll surprise him_. 

Lynx knew only Neo could actually beat the agents, but maybe she could stall him for a while…

She suddenly cartwheeled forward and took a swing at the agent. That caught him by surprise all right. Her fist connected with his nose. There was a crack. Not pausing for a fraction of a second, she continued with a series of punches and kicks, but the agent deflected them all at perfect speed, so she started simultaneously kicking him where she knew it would hurt. It did. The agent didn't stop fighting, though, he was a program after all, he continued so with one hand while the other shot down. He hunched over, and suddenly his head shot back as Lynx broke the rules of combat by stepping back and kicking him in the jaw. Balancing on one foot, she kept on kicking him in the face with the other, faster than the eye could follow, her foot a blur and the agent's head shaking like a punching bag. 

That was what it took to keep the agent distracted and unable to fight. Agent Jones, was this one's name. They all looked the same, she was able to tell it was him - he seemed to be the most evil. 

Lynx then had a crazy thought to take out her cell phone and start talking. That was something Neo would do. That showoff. Instead she decided to kick him in the throat - hard - to break his neck, like she saw Trinity do once. 

But that was a mistake.

Agent Jones seemed to anticipate that move, and the moment Lynx's foot left his face for a split second, his hands shot up, grabbing her leg. 

Now, from the training downloaded into her brain a while ago, Lynx subconsciously knew next she was supposed to punch him. But the agent seemed to know the program she used, so she decided to break the rules again, if that worked for her. 

All that rushed through her head in an instant, so the moment Agent Jones grabbed her leg, her other leg shot up, slamming in between his legs. She fell on her back, taking the agent with her, at the same time thrust her knee into his stomach, pushing him away. As he landed on the floor, Lynx rolled over, and, breaking the rules again, slammed the blade of her forearm down hard across the agent's throat.

He gagged.

Knowing this was her lucky break, Lynx did what she called "the helicopter" with her legs to help her leap to her feet, and made a run for it. She ran for the stairs, knowing the whole time that Agent Jones wouldn't have to get up and run after her - he'll just pop out of another innocent bystander ahead of her. 

Finally, she reached the stairs. There was only one light bulb on the floor, so they were dimly lit, which added to the gloomy atmosphere created by the peeling gray walls with spider webs in the corners.

It suddenly seemed to Lynx that the whole world looked like that staircase ever since she'd been unplugged.

But in other ways, it's become a thousand times brighter than the hot wire in the glowing bulb.

She decided not to run down, but take a faster ride, the railing. Black and shiny, with leftover shreds of hospital-green paint, it was wide enough.

Jumping up on the railing, she started her fast ascent. Her black leather pants would make for a good slide. She had always known her expertise at sliding down railing would come in handy some day. Almost lying on her back, zipping past floors at light speed, skillfully manipulating every turn, she sped down. With her free hand, Lynx took out her cell phone and dialed the numbers. 

Tank's voice was there immediately. "Yo, girl, nice fighting there! Wouldn't expect such bravery from you. I'm sorry to say this, but you're in some deep doo-doo. The only way out is the main entrance, heavily guarded by agents." 

"No problem," Lynx said sarcastically, "Just get me an axe and I'll chop my way out through a wall." That wasn't funny. But it was hard to be funny in a situation like this.

Tank chuckled. "There are phones in this building. Use the one in apartment 005, first floor. But be careful, the agents are everywhere."

"Just give me a couple of machine guns,"

"Where?"

"Not at the other end of Earth would be a good idea! At the bottom of the stairs is even better."

"Okay…" Tank muttered as sounds of typing came from the phone, "Those things are kind of heavy, you sure you'll handle two of 'em?"

"Gravity's not real, remember? Gotta 'free my mind'".

Tank chuckled again. "Good luck," he said.

__

I'm gonna need it, Lynx thought, throwing away the phone. The slide from the top floor of the building had taken a long time, but the end of the railing was near. 

She could feel the agents were there, waiting for her, before she saw them. She could also feel the guns, her only protection, at the end of the slide. Could she get to them before the agents emptied their guns into her?

One of the agents fired, but missed. As the railing ended, Lynx went into a headfirst plunge, grabbing the machine guns from the floor and rolling over her head back to her feet, already firing both the machine guns at the two agents she saw. They fired, too, but they only had small guns, so they both went down.

__

So much for dodging bullets, she thought. _Those must have been novices_. 

One of the agents turned into a middle-aged man, the other into a teenager. Both dead. 

__

There now, Lynx thought, _I killed two more innocent people_. But, as she knew well, they were part of the system, and, therefore, part of the enemy. 

So she ran down the hall to her left, towards apartment 005, from which she heard the ominous sound of a telephone ringing. The sound that could mean life or death. 

Lynx burst into the room, going into another headfirst roll, which was clever, for by that she avoided the agents' bullets, aimed at a higher level. This time she stayed down, not getting to her feet, and fired at the agents from the floor. There were two of them, again. One went down, the other started dodging bullets, becoming a blur of many arms and heads. Suddenly, Lynx felt a sharp pain in her left thigh. She's been hit!

But she continued firing and the agent was out. As he made an attempt to duck into a nearby room, he was hit, and went down as well. Both the agents turned into an elderly couple. 

The phone kept ringing.

Lynx tried to get up, but the sudden searing pain in her leg stopped her.

She tried to imagine it away. The pain is not real, because the bullet was not real. 

At that instant, another agent appeared out of the adjoining room. It was Agent Jones. Lynx slammed both triggers, but realized she was out. That cold realization swept through her with a wave of pure terror. She was defenseless. 

"Well, Miss Raines, you didn't think you could get away from me this time, did you?" Agent Jones implied, pointing his gun at her. 

The phone kept ringing.


	2. A Narrow Escape

Here's the next chapter! This one's a little different - it's a feeble attempt at suspense.

PLEEEEZ R&R!!!!!!!! (Great thanks to ppl who did already, u r a great support) =D

* * *

As Lynx stared down that gun barrel, it seemed that for the first time in her life she felt death - it was staring her right in the face. And despite the fact she'd been telling herself her entire life that she didn't care about death, she realized she was afraid. 

__

I could really use some help now, she thought. 

But Lynx was all alone and went for the last resort. Being telekinetic, which means able to move objects with her mind, though only in the Matrix, she decided to surprise Jones once more. 

So she stared at a big Chinese vase on the windowsill behind the agent, and, suddenly, it flew right at the agent's head, as though yanked by an invisible string. 

But the agent was fast. Following her gaze, he saw the vase coming at him, and his free hand shot up, faster than the eye could follow, but Lynx, who had a trained eye, saw that it held a gun, too. 

BAM!!!!!!

The vase was blown to bits in midair, and its shreds, mixed with dust, shot into different directions like a firework. 

"Nice try, Miss Raines. You are clever and with an unusual talent. Too bad all of that will be wasted." 

Thinking frantically, Lynx had a crazy idea. She was out of bullets… But what if… What if she could create the piece of code that meant "bullets", and will them into being? Again, only Neo could do that, he was The One after all, but by moving objects mentally she was already changing the code… So maybe it could work for her, too. 

__

Bullets, she thought. 

"You see," Agent Jones went on, now sure that he had her, "Young people like you have this sureness that nothing can ever happen to them,"

Lynx concentrated as hard as she could on the concept of a bullet. Its size, color, texture. Trying to will it up into being. 

"-and that is why thorought your human history, young people were the ones recruited to fight in wars."

Her eyes shut, Lynx was thinking hard of the bullet, and as it became real in her mind, 

she imagined lots of them. Filling up the magazines in her guns. 

__

They aren't empty. They're full. FULL.

"And that is why they chose to recruit you, of all people, and are giving you the most suicide missions."

What? Was he trying to corrupt her? Now that he was positively going to kill her?

But no time to think about that! Bullets! Concentrate! She had to have bullets!

"So I'm going to be very nice an give you a choice. I can spare your life, _and _give you back your old life, which _I know you want_," his eyes seemed to bore even deeper into her, "IF you cooperate and help us destroy those who pass themselves of as your friends. They are not who you think they are. Like worms spoiling a perfectly good apple, they are trying to destroy the perfect world it took us decades to create."

Lynx shuddered. She remembered how about a week after being unplugged she broke down and started shouting that they better kill her before she betrays them in exchange for a "normal" life, being afraid she might. She was underage, the team had no choice so they took the risk, and those were the consequences. But all that was behind her now. Or was it?

__

Bullets! She told herself, _Concentrate! You're almost there. Free your mind, for God's sake! _

"So, what do you say?" Agent Jones asked, with that crooked smile of his.

Lynx opened her eyes, and stared right at him with defiance.

"I say you can rot in hell!"

"Well, that's just too bad. I offered you a good way out."

"Well, you might as well stick it up your ass!" she growled.

"Bad choice," the agent chuckled, cocking his gun with an ominous click. 

Suddenly, Lynx was filled with a sureness that her guns were fully loaded, not empty. She could feel the bullets were finally there. None of her senses confirmed it, she just _knew_ it. 

"I don't think so." She said.

A double click was heard as Lynx cocked her guns.

Agent Jones' expression changed from contempt to utter bewilderment.

"No," he muttered in disbelief, "You're out!"

"Give my regards to the devil!" Lynx spat out, and fired at him. Agent Jones tried dodging bullets, but was too late - the shock Lynx gave him slowed him down for a fraction of a second, and that was just enough. He was hit several times already before he could really start moving.

As though in slow motion, he fell down, and his gun bounced as it flew out of his hand. Lynx watched as he morphed into a little girl lying facedown on the floor. She breathed a sigh of relief, as though Mount Everest just fell off her shoulders, and her guts were Jell-O. But at the same time, she couldn't help but think she just murdered a little girl and her grandparents, and that there are people left who are the girl's parents and one of them is the older couple's child…

But the phone was still ringing. Ignoring the pain where the bullet hit her, Lynx reached for the receiver. As she stared at it, concentrating the last of her strength, it rose up from the hook and floated through the air towards her. She grabbed it in midair and pressed it to her ear just as another agent burst into the room. But he was too late - he only hit the empty space where the receiver was hanging off its hook when he fired his gun. 


	3. Agent Jones' Bad Day

Ok, finally, chapter 3's here!! Yay! In this one, we get to meet our old friends… And some new. Shift is my character, he has joined the team before Lynx, in case you'll be wondering.

* * *

As soon as the needle was taken out of the back of her brain, Lynx sat up in her chair and held her head in her hands, trying not to cry from the shock. 

Tank spun around on his chair. "Now I've got to give it to ya, girl, you made some very narrow escape down there! Jeez, you scared the shit out of everyone! I can't believe you created those bullets, I mean where did that come from?!"

Lynx forced a sheepish smile. She realized there was blood seeping from her thigh where the bullet hit her, although there was no bullet in there now. 

Trinity appeared out of nowhere. "Thank God you're alive!" she exclaimed, "Are you alright?"

"Well, except for the fact that I almost got sent to heaven by old friend Jones, I'm bleeding like Frankenstein and my guts still feel like they've been through a meat grinder, yes, I'm perfectly fine."

Trinity smiled. "You're okay," she said. Trinity rarely smiles, Lynx realized. 

"You should do something about that wound, though."

Lynx went to give herself some kind of treatment for the bleeding gash, wondering how the wound came into being. Well, sure, her mind was telling her she was shot, but how did that make a connection to her real body?

When Lynx returned she realized the Neb was strangely empty. "Where are the others?" she asked. 

"Still in," Tank replied, motioning his head toward the three men lying in their chairs. 

"Neo and Shift have gone back in to rescue you," Trinity said, "Mouse is working on some new program somewhere else, and Morpheus is taking care of some other business. He doesn't even know about the shit you got into."

"Don't tell him," Lynx said, smiling, "Save it for when Jones realizes his dream and finally empties his gun into me."

"I have a feeling that's not his dream," Trinity said very seriously, "To tell the truth, I was afraid when he gave you that choice."

"What, you thought I'd betray you guys?" Lynx was surprised. But then she remembered. "Oh, I guess after the way I'd acted a while ago would make you expect anything from me."

Trinity shook her head. "It has nothing to do with you. It's just that a long time ago, before you or even Shift were recruited, one man betrayed us. He cooperated with the agents in exchange for a 'normal' life. I guess he kind of snapped… Even after all those years he's been with us, he couldn't take it anymore."

"He was an asshole!" Tank spoke suddenly, without turning around. Lynx realized with shock his voice was filled with anger and hate.

"A pathetic fucking asshole, that's what he was."

"Tank," Trinity said gently, "I understand that he did caused you a great deal of pain. To me, too, and to everyone else, but you especially. But you must try and understand… He wasn't strong enough. He snapped. It could happen to anyone who'd have to go through all this."

"Still, there's no excuse for what he did," Tank said angrily, "You and everyone else had been through the same thing, and none of you came up with _that_ little stunt. And Lynx just proved she is more trustworthy than that."

"Who was the guy? What exactly did he do?" Lynx asked. 

Trinity shook her head. "That's irrelevant. Besides, it's too painful to talk about."

Lynx nodded. She looked at the screens Tank was sitting at. She could read most of the code now, and it was like watching a very fuzzy old movie screen with black spots and patches where the code still unknown to her was. 

As she watched she saw Neo and Shift running down a street, their guns ready. Lynx was a little worried about Shift, though he was an excellent fighter, he was still a regular guy. 

Shift was a tall, Latin - type of guy with short black hair and a goatee. He was cute, but that was not the reason she liked him - he was a very kind, understanding person with an optimistic view of life. He and Lynx became great friends, being the two people who weren't part of the original team before. It seemed to her that if she lost Shift she would lose her best friend, and snap. Again. 

As she watched, Neo took out his phone and dialed. 

"Operator," Tank said, "You slowpokes are too late! Lynx already took care of herself rather well and is safe and sound with us! So now you guys have to get out."

Meanwhile Shift was looking around, checking the area for potentials. He has a special ability to detect potentials right before they turn into agents.

"Copy that, Tank," Neo replied, "Tell us the location of the nearest exit."

"It's on King and Elm. You're very close to there now, but be careful - you have potentials close at hand."

"No prob," Neo said, "Thanks, Tank." Then he turned off his phone. 

Suddenly, Shift jerked his head around and shot a man across the nearly-empty street. He and Neo exchanged looks, and started running towards the intersection. Soon they reached it, and headed for the payphone on the corner. Shift turned around and fired at an old woman coming towards them, but the old woman was already morphing an agent, who deftly dodged the bullets. 

"Uh, Neo?" Shift called. 

Neo turned around and looked at the agent. The agent was definitely looking for trouble. It was Agent Jones, Lynx realized. Was he really that stupid? He was probably very angry after being tricked by Lynx. So he attacked Neo. 

Neo's arm moved like a lightning as he fought away the agent, then with the other hand, he punched him twice in the face and once in the neck faster than the eye could follow, causing it to break. Then he kicked Jones sideways in the stomach. It didn't look like a very hard kick, but it sent the agent flying into a wall. 

Tank was laughing. "It seems like old friend Jones is having a _real _bad day!"

Trinity was smiling, again, but for a different reason. Lynx rolled her eyes. 

Suddenly, there were two policemen running down the street. "Hey, you! One of them shouted at Shift, "Someone told us you shot that man down the street for no reason!" Shift smiled grimly. The next thing you knew, he slammed the policeman in the face with his fist, then jumped, kicking him away, spun around in midair, kicked the other policeman in the stomach with one foot and in chest with the other, sending him tumbling across the street. Then he landed on his feet with perfect balance. 

"Good job. You go first." Neo said, handing him the receiver. So Shift, and then Neo disintegrated into thin air inside the telephone booth. 

Upon waking up, Shift immediately jumped out of his chair. He seemed to have some never - ending source of energy. "Lynx!" he exclaimed, "You here? You alright? Man, for a moment I thought we lost you there." There seemed to be genuine concern in his eyes.

"Well, as far as you can see, I'm alive…still" she mumbled with a sheepish smile. She did not want to give away the fact that she'd been terrified. She wasn't afraid of Shift, sure he'd understand how she felt, but Neo was here, too, and he was their leader, the One, and she felt as though she still had to prove herself as a warrior. For it was he that had made that choice to give her the chance when everyone else lost all hope.

"Hey, did I miss something here or did Lynx just escape a building full of agents without a scratch?" Neo inquired. Then smiling at Lynx, "Congratulations."

She chuckled. "Thanks for finishing off Jones for me. I guess Tank was right - it's his really bad day." 

"I guess the snob isn't used to getting trampled on," Shift said, "What exactly did you do, Lynx?"

"Well, I just told him to get his sorry little ass out of my way or -"

"Guys, you don't know _how_ she did it," Tank interrupted, "Sorry, Lynx, I _have_ to tell them." 

So he went on to tell them about Lynx's escapades, not without adding a little of his own imagination and exaggerating things a bit. When he was telling about how Agent Jones gave Lynx the choice, she noticed Neo's eyes flicker quickly from Tank to her and back.

"- That idiot!" Tank continued, "He gave her 2 bad choices, so she chose the third! Suddenly I see the code's all changin', and there are bullets in her guns! She made them materialize out of thin air!"

Both Shift and Neo looked at Lynx. "Is that true?" Neo asked. Lynx thought about saying something funny, but instead just nodded. Shift grinned, looking from Lynx to Tank and back. "But that's amazing!" he exclaimed, "See, Lynx, I always knew you were special! To move objects mentally is one thing, but to deliberately write the code?" He smiled at her in a special way he did sometimes, and she felt some kind of warmth inside, something that made her smile back. She usually didn't like to be the center of attention, but this time it felt really good to have so many people actually care about her.

After a while Morpheus came out. Everyone expected he'd tell them what he's been doing, but he said nothing and just looked very concerned. Lynx retreated to her room, deciding to face her demons and make plans for the future. Many questions crossed her mind. Now, that she could do this, would she never run out of bullets? Would she be able to conjure up guns? Or, maybe, the other way around, would she be able to _erase _things from existence, and, for example, walk through walls?

((((((((((((((((())))))))))))))))))(((((((((((((((((((())))))))))))))))))))))(((((((((((((((((()))))))))))))

Yay, finally, the end! Phew. Well, if someone here fell asleep reading this, their feelings are totally justified. But it'll get better soon!


	4. How It Began

Hiyo, everyone, you didn't really think that was the end, did ya? Now this chapter… Well, it doesn't really have any action, but you still have to read it, it contains vital information! 

* * *

Entering her quarters, Lynx groped for the light switch, and as the room sprang into being, her gaze fell upon the mirror in the corner. She had it here only as a tradition, for she had been avoiding looking there for a long time, freaked out by how the image in it was different from the one that she had seen all her life. It wasn't only that her straight brown hair, long in the Matrix, was now very short and sort of shaggy (it was even weirder when she didn't have hair at all) but her almond-shaped eyes seemed somewhat different, too. She could remember them being hazel all her life, framed by long dark lashes, but now they seemed a dull, dirty yellow. 

Frowning at the bony figure in the mirror, Lynx sprawled on her bed and closed her eyes. As she did that, she began to get carried off, tangled in a train of thought, floating inevitably toward her memories. She began to think back, way back, back to when her life began to take a crazed spin into the weird direction… 

She remembered that day very clearly. The day it all started. It must have been May, she was walking home from class. The weather was starting to move up the temperature scale, and all of the trees in the city were abloom with different colors. 

It didn't all start all in one day, though. Lynx realized that Alisa Raines, her alter ago, who she used to be back then, before, never had an absolutely ordinary life. She had discovered her telekinetic ability back when she was a kid, and it was so much a part of her life she never thought of herself as a freak or anything. It affected her mentality, she always knew, she could do this, there were other people who could, but most people couldn't. She was so used to it, that it became normal. 

Alisa managed to keep her ability a secret, though, only her best friend Jodi knew about it. The two of them knowing each other ever since they were toddlers, it became normal for Jodi, too. 

There was one other person who knew. Jodi's aunt, a family outcast, was a psychic. She worked with the supernatural, there were rumors she practiced magic and some referred to her as a witch. "My aunt knows everything," Jodi had said once, "You can tell her anything, she'll keep it a secret. And she can answer any question you could ask."

So Alisa went to see Jodi's aunt to ask for advice. When she came into the room the psychic was working in, she found herself in the dark, with only candles lighting the room, facing a woman wearing a mysterious black veil over her face, sitting before a table with a crystal ball on it. _Oh great,_ Alisa thought, _this is so corny and old. Now I_ _know she's a fraud for sure_. 

But, remarkably, the woman made a tremendous impression on her not only because she really seemed to know _everything,_ but also because of her powerful intelligence. Alisa felt it there like a presence superior to her own, as though she was not talking to an ordinary human being, but something more.

It was her who taught Alisa to think of her ability as a gift, but not tell others about it. "There are lots of bad people in this world," she said, "People who would want to exploit your talent, use it for money, experiment with it. They would turn you into a guinea pig, and there would be nothing anyone could do. It is a great gift you have, but it is up to you to use it wisely. In your future life, I know, there will be a time when you will have the urge to use your powers, to use them to do good, to save someone's life. It will seem to you that you have no choice, but _think before you act._ The use of your powers at a larger scale will go against you. Remember about bad people? Exposing yourself will cause you great trouble and pain, it will take you to a place where you don't want to go. Not everyone can be saved. Sometimes there are sacrifices to be made, but it's up to you what you are going to do with your life. Whether you can follow your destiny. And you know what that is. If you don't know now, you will later. The thing you should know, though, is that everything in the world is interconnected in ways you'd never think it could be. One thing acts because of another, one thing depends on another, the world exists because of this interdependence. That's how it is, that's how it always was, and that's how it always will be. Now don't ask me for any more answers. With time you will find them on your own, even the answers to the questions you don't know you have yet, questions about the world its self, and what things are what they seem and what things aren't. That is because you depend on the world and it depends on people like you. That is what's called interdependence, Lynx."

She had called her Lynx. Alisa couldn't get over the fact. Even though she had learned to depend on her intuition, she still couldn't believe someone could tell the future or know things they had no way to know. Nobody knew about Lynx, not even Jodi. It was her secret code name, she used it to hack. Being only an 11 year old kid, she was still a beginning hacker, but she had always known that was what she wanted to be. With plans to take over the world, she decided to keep her code name and real identity a secret, to be safe. _There was absolutely no way Jodi's aunt could have know that she was Lynx._

As she got older and joined the ranks of America's Most Wanted hackers, Alisa was tormented by one question. The Question. _What is the Matrix? _It was the Atlantis of hackers. The remnants of Noah's Arc. The Bigfoot. The UFO. The Lost City Of Gold. She also began to discover that she didn't just move things with her eyes, she also knew things, just like the psychic woman. She knew things before they happened. Sometimes she got this solemn sureness about something, with nothing to confirm it, but it was always right. 

And along with that came something else. More and more, it seemed to her at times that something was wrong with the world. Sometimes it seemed that things happened that never actually happened, and Alisa couldn't figure out whether they happened in real life or in a dream, while she was sleeping. That was a very spooky feeling, wondering sometimes whether she was dreaming or not. Maybe she was in some kind of terrible accident, lying in a coma, and all her life was just a very long dream…

With all those weird happenings, the day finally came where the wild goose chase of her life had started. A sunny day in May when she was returning home from class, in her last year of high school. Alisa had a funny feeling that morning, and for some reason she remembered Jodi's aunt. But she didn't dwell on it now, thinking about how she and her friends decided to goof off in class, because it was their last year of school, and almost got detention. That was a lot of fun. Passing an elementary school across the street, she noticed kids playing soccer in the schoolyard. One of the little boys, who had blond hair and wore a red T-shirt, was especially good. As Alisa watched, he kicked the ball, passing it to a teammate, but the guy didn't catch it, and so the ball went flying over the fence, landed on the sidewalk, and kept rolling out into the street. 

"_You_ get it, Joey!" She heard the kids yell. So the blond boy ran out of the schoolyard and after the ball. As he ran out on the street, in the middle of which the soccer ball was lying, Alisa noticed a car coming right at him. It was a pickup truck that had just come from around a corner, and the driver didn't even see Joey until it was too late, while Joey didn't see him at all. 

Alisa was the only one who did. "WATCH OOUUT!!!" she shouted, but Joey didn't seem to hear her. At that moment she panicked. She knew she had to do _something. _And she knew she could. She was the only one who could. In that split instant a thousand things rushed through her mind, she knew that this was the moment Jodi's psychic aunt has talked about, even though she'd forgotten it, convinced herself she didn't believe it, she knew it has come. If she used her powers… She had been told what'll happen. But if she didn't… A life depended on her. The life of a child. A child who could probably become a soccer star. Jodi's aunt told her she'd have to make a sacrifice. And she did.

Concentrating all the power she had within her, she hurled it at the truck, creating an invisible barrier in front of it, willing it to stop with all of her might. Se could feel the cars momentum, and felt the strain equivalent to trying to lift it, she tried to imagine it away. Really, the car had no weight. No speed. 

Inches from hitting Joey, the car suddenly stopped. Completely. It only stopped for a second there, but it was enough for the boy to pick up the ball and keep running, and for stunned driver, who had been madly squeezing the brakes, knowing he was too late, to comment in bewilderment, "What the? -" 

He had felt no G-force, he wasn't even thrown forward as his fast-moving pickup came to an abrupt stop, which defied all laws of physics. His airbag didn't open, and it was in perfect order, it's just that all of the momentum of the car just disappeared, although it hadn't been there in the first place. But only for a second. It took superhuman strength from Alisa to keep it still for that second, it was one of those moments when an extreme situation gives a human the power of a titan. As the kid ran out of the way, she let go, and the car continued moving, brakes screeching, leaving black smoking traces on the asphalt. 

Alisa stopped Joey when he reached her side of the street. She felt dizzy and there were silver specks swimming in her eyes from the tremendous effort, but she forced herself not to collapse. 

"Hey, Kid!" she called, "You almost got run over by that truck over there!" 

It obviously didn't come through for the kid how serious he situation was.

"Oh, my mom keeps on telling me that all the time." He grumbled.

"No, I'm serious!" Alisa exclaimed, "Come here," 

As Joey approached her, she crouched down to be level with his face. The boy clutched his ball, looking guilty.

"I know all the adults are really being boring and annoying telling you to be careful on the road," she said, "But believe me, they have a point. Getting hit by car hurts. It _really _hurts, Joey, and if it's really bad you die. Just think of your mom, what will she do if you're dead? And I don't think you want to die, either, do you?" She looked him in the eye. He shook his head.

"Well, that might happen if you do what you just did - run out in the middle of the street without checking for cars. You always _must _look around. And _please,_ don't risk your life for a soccer ball. It's just not worth it."

The boy nodded. "Alright?" Alisa asked. "Okay," he mumbled.

"Alright, then, off you go, but remember to be careful. 

The little kid ran back to his schoolyard, checking the street for cars before crossing. Alisa breathed a sigh of relief. Then, suddenly, she got a weird feeling. It was as though she was being watched. She got that feeling before, but never to this extent - now it was very powerful, she could almost feel a pair of eyes boring themselves into her back. 

As she turned to look over her shoulder, she saw a weird-looking fellow with freaky hair, wearing an ugly suit and cool shades, standing at the end of the block. There were other people, but she felt an absolute sureness that it was him who had been watching her. As she watched, the man got into a black car on the corner, and the car drove off. 

Alisa was left with a weird feeling. A nagging premonition, the cold feeling of inevitability. She knew she had made a choice, a vital one, but she wasn't sure it was the right one. Although deep down inside, she knew, that whatever it was going to bring her, she couldn't have let that child die. She had done the duty of a human being. 

But, after that day, Alisa started to get the feeling of being watched, more and more often. Sometimes at school, it seemed to come out of nowhere, or at home, where she saw a strange-looking car pass by her window and seemingly slow down for a second. She got that feeling before, seeing weird characters obviously faking reading a newspaper at a coffee shop and feeling a piercing gaze. She was quite used to that, though, considering herself over sensitive. And who knows what kind of morons just stare at people. Now, she did not know who and why was watching her, but she had a feeling she has to get far away. The plan had been in her head for a long time, to be as far away from her stupid family as possible, and now she had the perfect excuse. 

"Mom," she said, coming home one day, "After graduation, I'm leaving." 

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Well if u didn't like this don't give up! I'm tryin to work up a plot here, u see. There'll be more action later in the story, I promise, I have lotsa things in mind! Like I said, this story's gonna be kinda long… So just think of it as a book :)


	5. A Hole In The Matrix Part I

I'm back! I know it was a while since I updated, but now it's hard cause I have school and stuff. Now I must explain a few things: the following chapter was supposed to be only a part of an original chapter, but for some reason, don't ask me why, it turned out so long I had to split it in half. So that's why this chapter is called A Hole In The Matrix Part I. Now I understand it strays very far from the reality created by the movie, but I am just trying to do something different, that hasn't been done before, explore and bring up new aspects. This is an experiment! Now I will bore you no more so you can enjoy the chapter and I hope you will find that you can relate to my characters! :) PLEEZ R&R!!!!!

* * *

"How many more miles to the nearest gas station?" Mike asked irritably. "My ass has gone to sleep all over again, We've been drivin' for about 60 fuckin' hours now, my ass has gone to sleep all over again, all down the left cheek, and all we've seen so far are goddamn cactuses!"

"If your IQ was a bit higher that10, you'd realize that if we've been driving for 60 hours we'd be dead by now. Dead from your endless blabber!" Alisa exclaimed. She was trying to cheer everyone up, but she wasn't feeling too cheery herself. They'd been driving through the abandoned stretch of desert somewhere in the depths of Utah since daybreak, and ever since they left the town where they spent the night, they haven't seen any sign of human habitation. 

Dan, Alisa's boyfriend, wore a grim expression behind the wheel of his convertible, which used to be red, but was now more like a dirty reddish brown, all covered in dirt and dust.

Alisa, sitting in the front seat, knew why Dan was so grim. As she looked at the fuel indicator, and the arrow showed that they had less that a quarter tank left. Mike and Jodi, in the back seat, didn't know that, and Alisa thought it was best not to tell them. 

As the harsh, hot, dusty air rushed past, messing up her hair, she stared out on the desert on either side of the deserted highway. Sand, rocks, shrubs, dirt, sand, dirt, rocks, a cactus here and there, more sand… All that stretched out as far as the eye could see. The sun was high, shining mercilessly, making the shadows short and rigid. Not a cloud, just the vast, spotless blue, as harsh as the landscape under it. As the empty highway wound up and down there were little puddles of water on it, either dark or reflecting the sun or the surroundings. They disappeared as the car neared them. Mirages. Caused by hot air rising from the road. Another optical illusion, also caused by heat, was the way the landscape wobbled and shimmered far away at the horizon, like it does in those footages of African savannas, or above a large bonfire. 

Alisa realized Mike was talking about something with lots of expression. "I _told _you buttheads, it wasn't a good idea to cut through this fuckin' desert. But _no_, you wouldn't listen to me. Utah is a very weird place, I'm tellin ya, didn't you hear about all those religious polygamic cults and freaks that say they believe in Jesus and then sacrifice people?"

"Then this is definitely the place for you," Jodi said, "You would love to live in a polygamy, wouldn't you?" 

"That's not the point!" Mike frowned, "I'm plain _scared _of this friggen place, I'm tellin ya. Gives me the creeps. Did you know that somewhere around here is the Dead Zone?"

"Dead Zone?" Jodi asked skeptically, raising her eyebrows,

"Yeah. It's sort of like the Bermuda Triangle. Planes avoid it. Desert car races never go there ever since what happened in 1957."

"What exactly happened?" asked Alisa, slightly intrigued. Mike's babble wasn't to be taken seriously, but this time, it seemed, he had some information. She turned around, kneeling on her seat. Alisa never used seatbelts. 

"There was a desert car race somewhere around here," Mike started enthusiastically, "And when all the cars arrived at the finish point, two were missing."

"Jeez, got lost, that's all!" Jodi scoffed.

Mike ignored her. "Well they went looking for them, sent a helicopter."

"And the helicopter didn't come back, either," Jodi cut in. she was being sarcastic, but Mike said, "Oddly enough, Jodi, yes." She grinned.

"They thought it was maybe some weather condition, so they sent like a whole army with desert tanks and shit. And when they came… They found nothing. They lost all communications and got lost themselves or somethin', which was lucky, cause if they'd have gone into the dead zone they'd have been toast as well. But they found _one_ guy wandering in the desert though. He was dehydrated and stuff, so when he told them that there was a place in the desert where the earth ended, time stopped, people just vanished into thin air and freaky shit like that, they thought he was being delirious and shit. _But_, they never did find any trace of the others."

"Well, what's your explanation for all that?" Alisa asked. This sounded like another legend.

"Wait a minute," Dan spoke for the first time, "When did you say that was?"

"1957. Why?"

"Isn't that about the time the alien flying saucer crashed in Roswell?"

"Exactly!" Mike exclaimed.

Jodi rolled her eyes. "Please don't tell me you think the alien from that saucer crawled all the way to here, set up camp in the middle of the friggen desert and is eating every stupid ass who has the brains to wander in there."

"Well, not exactly," Mike said, "But some believe that the alien technology from that vessel r whatever was used by the military, and when they were finished with it, they dumped it in the middle of the desert where they thought no one would stumble across it. Dug it underground or something. But they didn't do a very clean job. The spaceship or whatever is radiating some shit that causes weird stuff. Like a time warp probably."

"A whatta?" Jodi, of course.

"Time warp. It's where time slows down, speeds up, or even bends and shit. Whatever other weird stuff it caused there, that guy claimed to have seen whole sections of the desert just… disappear."

"Well, what you're telling me right now is that you believe some ass who lost half his brain wanderin' through the desert and was on the verge of hearing voices and seeing devils prancing about." Jodi declared.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Alisa said, "This sounds suspiciously like an X-files case. I don't mean to sound skeptic, that's Jodi's job, but doesn't seeing people vanish in a puff of smoke classify as being nuts?"

Mike gave her a sly grin. "Well, still they never found those other asses, the car _or _the helicopter." 

Jodi was grinning as well. "Yeah, and I bet you'll use that as the argument to saying we'll all get eaten down here. Alisa was right, you definitely watch too much X-files, Mike."

Alisa wondered how the two got along. They seemed to be exact opposites of each other, yet they'd been dating for about 2 months now already. Mike was definitely a weird character, his interest in aliens was well - known, but he was nothing close to a geek. He was into heavy metal music, and dressed accordingly - all black, leather jacket, heavy silver chain around his neck, dog collar, and semi - Mohawk hair dyed green and blue. And tattoos, lots of them. He even had a tattoo of an alien. He didn't have any parents, and kept on changing foster parents all the time, because he annoyed them so much. He finally was allowed his own little apartment by the government at 18. 

Jodi, her best friend, has changed a lot over the years. She remembered Jodi when they were kids, a sweet, dark-haired, always smiling girl who believed in angels. Now she wouldn't believe you could borrow her money and actually give it back. 

Everyone except for ancient friends like Alisa remembered Jodi as a dangerous individual who carried a knife (although that was never proven) started up a fight whenever she got the chance and flirted with the hot Biology teacher. She now had fiery red hair and brilliant green eyes, which were also fake due to color contacts. Only Alisa remembered her friend the way she used to be. Such a radical change was due to divorce of Jodi's parents, having loved them both very much, pretty much her whole world fell apart when that happened. She had to live with her mother, who would yell at her one minute and ignore her the next…

Alisa, herself, didn't have a very happy life. Her parents never loved her and only cared about her little sister. When Alisa was younger she was always jealous cause Leanne was the only one who ever got pretty new clothes. At Leanne's every whine their parents they bought her loads of ice cream and when Alisa asked for some they'd say "Grow up, Alisa! You're older, and we don't have any money, you have to make amends for your little sister."

And of course, Leanne got the best presents at Christmastime. 

It was different when Alisa grew up. She had her own job, her own money. All she wanted was a little bit of love. But she couldn't have that, either. Leanne got all of it.

Her parents never cared, when she told them they wouldn't give a shit if she died they just yelled at her. 

Dan was a different story. He didn't have a screwed-up family like the rest of them. His parents were rich, and very busy, they didn't spend much time with him, but they seemed somehow concerned. When Alisa proposed her scheme to run away, leaving their dull city behind, and go to L.A. to Jodi, she had agreed immediately. ("What have I got to lose?" she said.) Jodi wanted to bring Mike along, and when she told him, he said simply, "I'm in."

Alisa thought it be more difficult to convince _her _boyfriend, but eventually did he not only agree, he decided they take his car. After all, it was a Porsche with an F1 engine. Yes, Dan was stinking rich as his friends liked to say. "I'm in it for the adventure," he had said, "Besides, you daredevils need someone sensible along."

That last part was said rather in a macho way, and, as Jodi had mentioned later, one could not be sure whether he meant 'sensible' or 'rich'.

* * *

Another hour had passed, Mike got more and more grumpy, he dragged out a bit of weed, Jodi attacked it, and Alisa, who couldn't stand drugs, rolled over to the back seat, almost falling out of the car, and threw Mike's whole supply of pot out of the car. Mike got pissed, he cursed, commanded Dan to pull over, but he just said, "Sorry, man, this ride don't stop for such lowly purposes created by a creature as lowly as you." Mike threatened to ram his head down the first toilet he found, and everyone laughed at that cause there wasn't a single toilet in sight for miles.

As time passed, Dan got more and more tight-lipped, glancing very often at the fuel indicator. They had so little fuel left it was amazing they still kept going. The miracles Dan's Porsche could do. And still, after every curve of the road, there was nothing. 

"Man, I don't know if we're gonna make it." Dan said finally. "The fuel is awfully low."

"Don't you like, have a spare canister?" Mike asked.

"Used that a long time ago." Alisa said grimly, "Don't you remember, butthead?"

"Oh yeeeeaaaah…" Mike nodded. 

"Okay, don't tell me we're gonna be stuck in the middle of the desert without food or water!" Jodi said in disbelief. 

There was a silence. Mike broke it. "Dude!" he said, "That is so cool!"

Jodi growled and started hitting him on the head. 

"No, I'm serious!" Dan exclaimed. "If a gas station doesn't pop out of nowhere right now, this is gonna be really old and corny."

"But well, there still is hope," Alisa said, "We might make it."

And then, somehow, at that moment, she knew they wouldn't. She couldn't explain how she knew, it wasn't a resolution one could have made by logic, she just knew it. It was the same cold sureness she had grown to trust, and this time it filled her stomach with knots. 

As it turned out, she was right. Soon afterwards, the engine started sputtering, and then stalled altogether. "Shit!" Dan cursed, turning it off, "What now?"

"Well, don't ask me!" Jodi exclaimed. "This is your car, you're the one who should have taken care of it! Said it would be a fun ride!"

"How could I have known-"

"Guys!" Alisa yelled, "Drop it. Do you realize we are in _deep shit_ now, and fighting would only make it worse?"

* * *

They took some supplies from the trunk of the car, and set out on foot. They kept on musing over the fact that running out of gas in the middle of a desert was the stupidest thing you could do besides shoot yourself on the face while inspecting a gun barrel. But as they trudged on in the buzzing heat, Alisa started to get a very weird feeling, and it got stronger and stronger as they went farther. They thought they were going towards civilization, but she had a feeling they were coming down into an endless pit, falling into complete desolation, coming inevitably to a place where reality got dimmer and dimmer before it disintegrated, a place where the earth ended. 

After a long while they became quiet. Mike and Jodi went ahead, Alisa was plodding behind, tired, with her head on Dan's shoulder. It seemed she was living a dream. It wasn't so much the situation as it was the feeling. 

It seemed that as though when she closed her eyes the desert around them disappeared. She closed her eyes for a moment and the feeling came again. She tried to imagine herself not walking down a highway, but lying on the couch back in her air - conditioned home, sipping some cool ginger ale. Somehow the vision came quickly. A little too quickly. It seemed all of a sudden that she wasn't walking at all, she was lying down… Or was she floating? The longer she walked with her eyes closed the sharper the feeling became, until it started to feel more real than her reality. The feeling of being crouched into a fetal position as though sleeping, and floating… Floating in some… Liquid? Molasses? 

As it became all too real Alisa felt like she was on the verge of waking up and realizing she was actually floating in the strange stuff… That's when she opened her eyes. The feeling went away, fast, like a wave, but its remains lingered in her mind. She must have looked really disturbed, for Dan asked her, "You weren't actually sleeping, were you? I've known people to sleepwalk, but never like this!"

Alisa smiled. "I think the heat is getting to me," she said, "My brains are starting to melt."

Suddenly, they heard Mike's hoarse voice coming from ahead. "People, I think I'm startin' to hallucinate or some shit. Jodi, do you see what I see?"

There was a pause. Then suddenly, Jodi sheirked in a very unlike for her high pitch, "HOUSE!!!! THERE IS A HOUSE!!!!" 

"What? Huh?"

Jodi took off down the highway at top speed, Mike hot on her heels. As Dan and Alisa stared down the road, they saw it, too. It was a square, squat, seemingly white building next what seemed to be a gas station. Wobbling with heat, in the bronzing rays of the setting sun, it looked ghostly, but no doubt it was real. 

"Could that be an optical illusion?" Dan wondered, "I mean, it was known that people traveling through the desert-"

Alisa jerked his sleeve suddenly. "It's not a fucking optical illusion, smartass, we've finally reached civilization! We're not gonna die!!! Come on!"

And so she set off in a run after the other two. Finally, it seemed, their perilous, screwed - up journey has come to an end. All their exhaustion blown away, they were running down the sunset - lit highway, feeling once again, like in the beginning of the trip, the excitement and exhilaration of being free. Mike was especially happy, feeling like he was gonna fly, because for a while already he wanted to take a dump, but the thought of doing it in the middle of a desert in front of his friends didn't make him feel too hot. 

Their happiness, though, was short - lived. The gas station seemed as deserted as everything else. The old concrete had dry shrubs growing out if its cracks, and they realized the fuel pump didn't work. The square building actually turned out to be a restaurant. It seemed to have two floors, with small, dirty windows with drawn scraggly - looking curtains. There was a door with an old mosquito net on it, and above it, in big, red letters was the word 'RESTAURANT'. 

"What kind of a bugged-out place is this?" Mike mused. Alisa reached out for the old, tattered handle that looked like it's going to fall off, but Dan stopped her.

"Let me go first." He said.

"Oh yeah, so you can protect us in case some man-eating zombie is waiting for us there, you big, strong, maaan?!" Alisa exploded. She liked to make fun of dan when he tried acting protectively.

"Ouch!" Mike exclaimed, and laughed. "Don't you know you should never do that to a woman, Dan? It's the third millenium, and every woman is a feminist!"

"Shut up!" Jodi snapped. Dan rolled his eyes. He reached for the knob.

"It's probably locked-" Jodi said. But Dan already turned the knob and pushed the door. There was terrible creak as the door slowly opened inwards. At first, the four didn't see anything, their eyes adopting to the dark. Their biggest disappointment was the fact that the building didn't have air conditioning. They were struck by the stifling, dusty atmosphere, and the working fan they noticed standing on the bar counter didn't help much. 

Except for the bar, on the room there were tables covered with clean checkered table spreads, and chairs. In the middle of each table, there was a small vase with what looked like a fake, dusty carnation. The last rays of the sun leaked through the cracks in the heavy curtains, lying in lines of molten gold on the floor and the table spreads. There was music playing in the room, some kind of soft jazz that was so barely - audible they didn't hear it at first. Everything seemed normal about this place, but Alisa felt as though something, maybe the whole atmosphere of it, was somehow spooky and strange.

"Man! There's a bathroom here! Hallelujah!" that was Mike, who had already made his way to the back. 

"I must admit that is rather a fortunate situation." Said Dan in a serious - mocking voice. They both sprinted down the hall at the back that said, 'WASHROOMS'. Jodi snickered.

"I wonder if there's anybody here," she said, "This place seems to be as deserted as the desert its self. Hello?" she called. "Anybody here?" Alisa joined in, "You've got customers! And some really pissed off customers, too, cause we've been stranded in the desert!"

"We want some service!" Jodi yelled.

"Or we'll file a lawsuit!" Alisa added, grinning.

Jodi cracked up. "Jeez, I sure hope they've got some sense of humor after this!" she exclaimed.

But no one came. It seemed strange, the music was playing, the fan was working, and the restaurant seemed to be in operation, but there was no sign that there was anyone running it. 

"What the fuck are they thinking, leaving their customers to die?!" Jodi growled.

"I don't think they get a lot of customers here." Alisa sighed.

"Oh well, might as well help ourselves." Jodi said, getting behind the bar counter. She picked up the hose that said 'coke' on it. "Oh my god, I can't believe it, we can actually spray each other with coke! That would be wicked, don't you think?"

"With this kind of heat, hell yeah!" Alisa answered. She made her way to the back of the room. There was the hallway leading to the washrooms, and a staircase leading upstairs. 

"I'll go check out the upstairs," Alisa called, "Maybe there's someone there." For some reason the stairs were strangely forlorn, and she held her breath and proceeded with great caution as she started to ascend. As she stepped on the first old and ruddy wooden step, it gave an ominous creak, much similar to that of the door. The stairs were narrow, like a passage leading through the walls of the building, and seemed to be covered with thick layers of dust. 

There was another thing about them, though. The higher she climbed, stepping carefully, being ready for the stairs to break, the more she started to get the feeling she got on the road before. The reality seemed to be dimming. She suddenly wasn't sure that the space behind her, the room she just left, the steps she just stepped on, really existed. Maybe, she thought, what if, each step disappeared right after her foot left it. 

That was kind of creepy. She deliberately turned around. The stairs were still there, of course. But somehow seemed to her that maybe they sprang into being right as she turned around to look back. Alisa remembered, dimly, that some kind of philosopher put out a question, that stated, "Does an object really exist when no one's looking at it?" It might seem stupid, but right at this very moment, Alisa thought, maybe that guy was right.

She continued slowly towards the single door that was visible at the top of the stairs, listening to any sounds that might indicate any human presence. But there were none.

Alisa finally reached the door and stopped in front of it. It was wooden, dark with age, with what seemed like a brass knob. She paused, and then rapped on the door, expecting a hollow sound. But the sound it made was rather weird, like it was missing something, like a bad sound effect in a low - budget movie. "Anybody there?" she called. Then knocked again. No response. Not even a sound. She reached for the knob, and turned it. The knob turned easily, the door wasn't locked. Alisa didn't feel too good just bursting into somebody's house like that, the inhabitants may be taking a shower or just hanging around in their underwear, it was their home, for God's sake!

But still, she pushed the door inwards, stepping forward…

She expected a room or a hallway, but nothing, absolutely nothing prepared her for what she saw next. 

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Well, how da ya like that? Oh and by the way, if someone hated that chapter and thought it was terribly boring, feel free to be completely honest (but nice) and give suggestions in your review or email me, cause how else would I get better? But this is NOT an opportunity to have fun by putting, "thins sucks, get a life!" or something in the review. Next chapter coming soon (I hope) please don't give up reading my fic, I have GREAT things in my mind, this will get big!!! That's a promise!!!


	6. A Hole In The Matrix Part II: The Twilig...

Hello everyone I'M BACK!!!!!!!!! Sorry sorry sorry for the cliffhanger I was extremely busy!!!!! Hope u like this next chapter!!! Great thanks to everyone who reviewed, please don't give up!!! Enjoy!! :) :) ;)

* * *

Alisa turned the knob and stepped forward, opening the door.

And almost fell out.

There was no floor, no room, nothing. Losing her balance, she almost fell off the doorstep. Swinging herself backwards, not letting go of the doorknob, Alisa slammed the door as she turned on her heel to face away from it. Her foot hit something small, and a tennis ball went bouncing down the steps. 

Alisa was still shocked. The door had been open for only two seconds, but the image she had just seen was etched in her brain.

The building ended at the door. It was as though the rest of it was blown away by a huge explosion. When she had leaned out Alisa saw the desert, two stories below. The strangest thing was that she didn't see the parking lot and the gas station, which should have been there. Just the desert. And it was strange, all wobbly and shimmering, although it wasn't that hot anymore. The weirdest thing, though, was that the horizon wasn't where it was supposed to be. It seemed a lot closer, like in those footages shot on the moon. And it wasn't straight and rigid, either - the desert shimmered and dissolved into nothingness.

As though the earth ended in that particular place. With a cold feeling Alisa remembered what Mike had said about the 'Dead Zone'. 

"Alisa! Hey! Is anyone up there?" Jodi called. 

"Uh, no," Alisa replied. Suddenly, a wave of dizziness and nausea swept over her, but only for an instant. Surprised, she staggered to the right, and her foot hit a small object. 

And a tennis ball went bouncing down the stairs. 

It was déjà vu. Hadn't that just happened already? Were there two tennis balls? And why would there be tennis balls at the top of the stairs anyway?

Alisa shrugged. For some reason she always got dizzy when she had déjà vu. 

She turned to face the door knowing she had to open it, to face it again, to see more clearly what is beyond, although she had a bad feeling abut it. But as she turned the knob, she realized with shock that the door was locked.

__

What?! But it was just open! Alisa thought in disbelief. Was it possible that she accidentally shut the door when she slammed it behind her? 

She tried the door again, pushed it, kicked it, and cursed in frustration. It was no use. The door was tightly shut. So there was nothing left to do but come back down the stairs. 

"Jodi," she said, once she was down, "You won't believe me, but I just saw the weirdest thing-"

She was interrupted by loud voices and a thundering of feet coming from the hallway to the left. The guys were coming back.

"Jeez, what took you so long?" Jodi bellowed, "One would think you got severely constipated and had to administer enemas in there."

The guys looked flushed. Dan was cracking up, but Mike didn't look too happy.

"Did Mike slip on his humungous key chain and fall into the toilet? _After_ he did his business?" Alisa asked.

"No," Dan managed to squeeze out between bursts of laughter, "He… he…"

"What?" Jodi looked annoyed, "Boy, I thought you knew how to talk!"

"Dude, it's not that funny!" Mike exclaimed, "That was my _favourite _yo-yo!"

"What. Happened?" Alisa said slowly.

"He… He was playing with his yo-yos, doing weird tricks with them and stuff," Dan said, catching his breath, "And then… and then…" his voice trailed off again as he doubled over with silent laughter, leaning against the wall. 

"And then the yo-yo went up your ass? Is that why you're laughing?" Jodi asked sarcastically.

Mike looked pissed. "It was all your fault, man!" he declared accusingly, sitting down and beginning to play with the remaining yo-yo.

"Well, if you can't speak normally," Alisa told Dan, "Then I think a good smacking might help!"

And she proceeded to slap Dan generously on either side of the face. That helped. Soon Dan managed to tell them exactly what happened. It turned out Mike was doing figure eights with his yo-yos, and accidentally sent one flying through the air and it fell right into the toilet Dan had previously used for #2 and forgot to flush. Imagine their surprise when it turned out the toilet was broken and didn't flush at all.

"We tried everything, man," Mike said, "I even tried to fish out the yo-yo with my key chain, but it didn't work!"

"You forgot the part when you tired to make tweezers out of the cardboard tubes they put inside toilet paper rolls," Dan put in. 

"Hey, look who's talking!" Mike exploded, leaping from his seat, "If you stupid butthead haven't fuckin' crapped into the toilet in the first place, we wouldn't have to try fish my yo-yo outta the son of a bitch!"

"Hey, chill!" Dan exclaimed, waving his hands, "What did you expect me to do, crap on the floor? I had to go, man."

Mike calmed down a bit and sat on his chair again. "I don't know what I'm gonna do without my baby now…" he sighed. So sad and pathetic he looked, Alisa almost felt sorry for him. Almost.

"It's just a yo-yo," she said, trying not to laugh, "You can buy a new one."

"No, you don't understand!" Mike exclaimed, "It was my _lucky_ yo-yo." Leave it to Mike to be weird about that.

But Jodi knew how to handle her man. In one second, she went from sarcastic and irritated to sweet and sympathetic. She sat down next to him and put her arm on his shoulder.

"Hey, we'll get your baby. I'll promise, we'll get it out. I'll help."

"You mean you'll go into the guys' bathroom and stick your hand in the toilet?!" Mike asked in utter terror, "You would do that for me?"

Jodi nodded. "No problem. I eat spiders. This shouldn't be much different."

A broad smile spread across Mike's face. "You're amazing!" he said. He tried to kiss her, but she ducked away. 

"Let's get right to business." She announced in a marine-on-a-mission voice. Who's about to accompany me on my dangerous and extremely hazardous mission?"

"Me," Mike volunteered.

"I'll come," Dan said. 

They all looked at Alisa. Suddenly, she wanted to barf.

"Sorry, guys, but uh, I hope you'll forgive me if I sit out on the Mission: Impossible III. I'm not feelin' too well already."

"Well then, you better not come," Dan said, "Cause then you'll feel much, much, worse." They all chuckled and the three left to embark on the extremely hazardous mission, leaving Alisa behind. 

She wandered through the empty room, listening to the quiet music, and then sat down in one of the chairs. Fumbling through her backpack, she found an old pack of cigarettes. Finding a lighter, she lit one, and as the warm, sparky red glow came into being on its end, she realized how dark it was. The sun had set and the restaurant was submerged into twilight. The room looked ghostly as darkness began to fill it like smoke, as though giant phantom cobwebs began to grow in the corners. Outside, everything, even the desert, was blue. Twilight looked especially spooky here, in this spooky place. Her thoughts wondered, suddenly as slow as molasses. The whole cosmic patterns of the world seemed to be have slowed down. Here. In this place. Like the lazy heat of the day that now had somewhat cooled off. Like the lazy spinning of the fan on the bar. Like the lazy music playing in the room, as though it had no strength left to go faster and louder. As though the whole world was falling asleep.

Alisa realized with a start that it wasn't the world, it was her who was falling asleep. She had begun to nod. Falling asleep while smoking was dangerous, she knew that all too well. Lifting her head, she took another puff, slowly sucking in the magical smoke. A thought occurred to her. What if she was already sleeping? What if all of this was a dream? That would explain it, of course. The running out of gas, (no really, what are the chances of _that?_) the dead zone story, what she'd seen up the stairs, the déjà vu… And the whole strange unrealness of this place. 

Yes, that was it, she was dreaming, and couldn't wake up. But then, when had she fallen asleep? In the car while they were driving in the early morning? Were they driving right now, still in Dan's Porsche, on their way to LA? Or were they still sleeping soundly at the motel in town, and today had not come yet? Or maybe… Maybe she fell asleep well before they decided to run away… It was a crazy idea. Look where it's gotten them. Alisa was a reasonable person, wasn't she?

She couldn't remember. Maybe this place was eating away her brain cells just like it was eating away reality. They had driven into the twilight zone.

Maybe, then, she had fallen asleep long ago and her entire life was a dream? That would explain her being telekinetic. As far as she knew, this stuff wasn't supposed to be possible…

Alisa stared at the half-empty beer bottle standing on the bar counter. As she concentrated, the bottle rose into the air, tipped to the side, and the liquid poured into an empty glass. The bottle set its self down and the glass of beer flew across the room and into Alisa's hand. She didn't do this often, not wanting to make a habit out of it, not just because that was just way too _Matilda._ Only Jodi knew, and Alisa was afraid if it became a habit she'd forget and do it in front of other people… And that would be disasterous. 

Closing her eyes, she sipped the cool liquid. Suddenly, the weird feeling came again, it seemed that once she closed her eyes the world around her disappeared. It wasn't there anymore, she felt it, she somehow knew it, the same way she had known they would not make it till the nearest gas station, the same way she'd known many things before. But it wasn't possible. Or was it? 

As she opened her eyes, the room sprang into being. Or was it there all the time? Was she just going nuts? But still, there was the inevitable feeling of that the room behind her, where her angle of vision couldn't reach, didn't exist anymore. Becoming more and more paranoid, she turned around, finding the room where it was. But had it just appeared as she turned around?

Her cigarette had turned into a stump and thin blue smoke rose in a thread from the end, which glowed like a dying ember. "Making progress on the road to cancer?" Alisa heard a voice behind her. She turned around to see Jodi standing there. She was hardly able to see her friend's features in the thickening dark.

She chuckled. "Making progress in fishing Mike's junk out of the toilet?" Jodi didn't answer. "Let me have a puff," she said. As Alisa passed the noticeably diminished cigarette, Jodi sucked in the fume and pinched her nose, causing the smoke to come out of her ears. Alisa laughed. "What the-" 

"Mike taught me that," the other girl replied, "Your nose and ears are connected by hollow canals, so if you block one exit… Smoke takes the other." They both laughed. After a short silence, Jodi spoke, "We broke into a closet and I found some rubber gloves to fish out the yo-yo. There were also some plumbing tools, so we decided to try and clear the pipes, but that only made the shit go all over the floor. The guys are cleaning it up."

There was another silence, and this time Alisa broke it. "You know, I could never do these kind of things, and I guess I never will. You know, do something sweet for someone for free, just because I care about them. That is so selfless."

Jodi smirked. "You call this selfless? _Sweet?_ Aw, come on, you know what I'm hoping for when I do nice things for Mike," she said with a wink.

"I just realized that there is no one remembering me as a person who helped them." Alisa said. "I had never done anything for anyone, like you, Jodi. Me, I have no conscience."

"That just means you are much more reasonable than me," Jodi retorted, stuffing the cigarette butt into an ashtray. "No, do you really think that fishing out that yo-yo was a great thing?" she implied.

"It was, to Mike," Alisa responded, "Right now, you're his hero."

"Jeez, what's gotten into you?" Jodi said, "You always say you never had a conscience, so why are you so suddenly overcome by guilt?"

Alisa shook her head really fast, causing her hair to flail into all different directions.

"Jeez, I dunno," she said, "Maybe this place is starting to get to me. Gives me the creeps."

"Yeah, me too," the redhead said, shivering, despite the fact that the air was still quite warm. "Feels like… We're in the twilight zone or something. Maybe Mike was right, there are aliens here and right now they're probing our minds!"

They both laughed at that.

* * *

They had no choice but to spend the night at the restaurant. Their attempts of breaking into the upstairs did not succeed. Trying to make their evening better, Jodi found the old CD player that has been annoying them with the same music through the afternoon, and blasted a Linkin Park CD at full volume. With the beer and the music and the food they found it suddenly seemed that life wasn't so bad after all. They've reached their goal, after all – they were free. And this place couldn't be completely abandoned. Sooner or later, someone will drive by and come to their rescue. The four teens were sure of that.

At some point, Alisa found herself sitting outside on the pavement, leaning against the building's wall. The air had gotten quite cool, and the stars high above in the pitch-black cloudless sky twinkled and shimmered like a billion tiny jewels. But except for that, beyond the circle of light created by the single high-voltage street lamp illuminating the parking lot with a low electric hum, the pitch-black darkness set in, like a living creature, you could almost feel it there, waiting to engulf, to suffocate you. Alisa wasn't afraid. She had planned to become a psychologist after all. She analyzed that feeling for a while, and the fact that she was now completely sure that there was nothing beyond the circle of light, just a black emptiness… 

There was a creak as the door opened. Dan came out, bringing the sounds of loud music with him. He was having a smoke. 

"Why'd you leave?" he asked. "I though everyone was having fun"

"I dunno," Alisa replied honestly, "Maybe I'm just tired."

They stared for a while at the darkness where the highway was supposed to be.

"Do you think there will be any crazy nuts like us who'd be coming through this area?" Dan asked. "Cause if there's not, we're toast."

"Well, maybe we could call for help…" Alisa said. Then she realized the ridiculousness of her idea. They didn't even have a radio. Their only hope was if someone drove through these parts. Otherwise they'd have to turn the whole place upside down until they found a gas canister (and that wasn't a guarantee) and then walk all the way back north to their car. The thought of such a hike wasn't very enticing. 

Then, suddenly, a miracle happened. At first, Alisa couldn't believe her eyes, and Dan actually rubbed his. 

"Do you see what I see?" she asked in disbelief.

There, close to where the horizon supposedly was, there were two tiny pinpricks of light. They grew bigger and bigger as they drew closer.

"This must be a UFO!" Dan exclaimed. That was a pretty stupid comment, but it was true that in this desolate piece of Earth you'd rather expect to see a flying saucer that a car.

"No, you idiot, this is our ticket outta this hole!!!" Alisa exclaimed, jumping to her feet. As though possessed by some demon, both of them took off into the direction of the rapidly nearing headlights. The sound of a car engine was unmistakable in the cool night air.

The two of them raced past the circle of light, and into the darkness beyond, towards where the highway was supposed to be. As the darkness engulfed them, Alisa started getting the same creepy feeling again, but she ignored it, concentrating on the pair of headlights shining ahead, reflecting on the smooth surface of the pavement. They got into the line of the car's headlights, waving their arms wildly, yelling, jumping up and down to be noticed.

The driver noticed them. The vehicle slowed down as it came closer, and pulled past them into the parking lot, rolling down the window at the driver's side. It was a black Pontiac. 

And that's when, as the car entered the illuminated area, Alisa realized something was wrong, even before she saw the driver's face. She knew that the car hadn't come here by chance. Whoever was driving it had other reasons. And they weren't good. As funny as it may seem, she could almost _feel _an evil presence.

As the tinted window slowly rolled down, lines of reflected light slithering like snakes across the glass, Alisa found herself getting more and more nervous, as though she was about to take a peek into the devil's lair. 

And that was when she realized just what was wrong. The man behind the wheel wore cool-looking black shades, but his hair was ugly and out-of-date. And that unmistakable pea-colored suit.

Alisa stood frozen, rooted to the spot, feeling a thousand things race through her mind.

__

They found me. But how? I disappeared. I thought by doing that I'll get them off my tail. But this means they'd been watching me even more intensely than I thought. Do they have spies among my friends? My family? Who the hell are they anyway and the fuck do they want with me?! 

For Alisa was sure that the stranger had come for her. She was sure he was the one she saw watching her on that fateful day when she saved a little boy's life – and probably doomed her own.

As though in some kind of trance, she watched as Dan very happily approached the car and started talking to the man. It turned out he saw their car a couple miles up the highway, went to check it out, and when he found no one, realized the situation and drove on to find the poor owner.

He made some lame excuse about being in this deserted area, like he was cutting through, too, but unlike them, knew this area well. Alisa of, course, knew that he was lying. This agent came here on purpose.

__

Agent? She thought suddenly, why do I suddenly think he's an agent? Why did I call him that?

Meanwhile, the strange man offered them a lift. And Dan agreed, again, happily.

__

He doesn't know, Alisa thought frantically. _What do I do?_ A lump was forming in her throat, and she felt dizzy. She refused to admit this feeling was fear. 

Suddenly the answer came – from within her or somewhere else, she wasn't sure.

__

Don't go anywhere with this man. Whatever it takes, you must not.

She briskly pulled Dan aside. A fake 'excuse me' was all she could manage to say into the direction of the freakish man. She hoped he'd at least be polite.

"What the-?" Dan said when she saw the expression on her face. As soon as they were out of earshot, Alisa stopped and looked her boyfriend in the eye. 

"Dan, we must not go anywhere with this freak." She stated solemnly.

"What?" Dan seemed very much surprised. "You think he's that lame? Aw, come on, it doesn't really matter, he's the only chance we've got to get outta here!"

"DAN I'M FUCKING SERIOUS!!!" Alisa almost shouted.

He looked aghast.

"Sorry," Alisa quickly apologized, "I didn't mean to snap at you. But this man is dangerous. I think he might kill us or something." _That didn't sound very convincing_, she remarked to herself immediately. 

Dan didn't seem to find it convincing, either. "Will you listen to yourself ?!" he exclaimed, "If I didn't know better, I'd think you are making a very bad joke!"

"Dan, listen. I know that right now I might have nothing to prove this with, but my intuition is telling me that he means danger to us all. As a matter of fact, in my brain, the alarm bells are going off like crazy. You _know_ about my intuition, Dan. You _know_ I'm always right. A gift, a curse, or a never-used appendix of our minds, you _know_ mine can be trusted." 

Dan sighed, rolling his eyes, and jammed his hands into his pockets, a clear sign of irritation. "I _know_," he said, "But is that all you're basing it on? We must miss our only chance of leaving here just because you've got some evil vibes? I'm sorry, but I need a better reason that this." 

It was Alisa's turn to roll her eyes. That was the problem. Everyone wanted concrete and logical evidence for everything. Nobody would believe you just because you say you've got a feeling.

But they should. Because Alisa's feelings have never betrayed her. Now though, at this very moment, she realized she did have a better reason, but it wasn't something she wanted to share with Dan.

But maybe she had no choice.

She took a deep breath.

"I think this dude is from the FBI or the CIA or some shit. Whoever they are, they've been watching me recently. I don't know why. Most likely because of my computer crimes. Somehow they must have figured out who I am. I'm pretty sure that he came for me. I don't want you or Jodi or Mike to get hurt because of me. So please. Just tell him to fuck off."

Dan looked her in the eye, his solemn blue eyes boring into hers. She stared back, trying to make her gaze as clear as possible, as though she had nothing to hide.

Dan sighed again. "Do you really believe what you're telling me?" he asked.

Alisa nodded solemnly. Dan shifted uneasily, utterly confused. She could see he didn't believe her, and he didn't want to. 

Then, a quiet but firm and somehow chilling voice came from the direction of the car.

"In case you two are having second thoughts about needing a lift to the nearest town, I hope to extinguish them."

Dan turned around, and with him not blocking Alisa's view anymore, she saw that the weird man was now pointing a gun at them. 

__

Shit, shit, shit, it's too late!

"Now," he said, "I would really prefer if you two cooperate and get in the car."

"Fuck," Dan muttered. He regretted for not listening to his girlfriend now. Amazingly, she had been right. But that still wouldn't have changed anything. He was frantically trying to think of something as the two of them walked slowly towards the car. He decided to talk loudly so Mike and Jodi would come out to see what's happening. And if he distracted the man enough, maybe he could reach out and grab the gun. 

"Now who the hell are you and what fucking right do you think you have to do this?" he asked. "Are you the police? Oh no, I see you must be quite the opposite."

"I'm neither," said the man, annoyed, "And I would prefer if you did a little less talking."

"Hey, you're in cranky mood, aren't ya?" Dan continued, "Maybe some big digits will get you in a better one?"

The man looked even more annoyed. His hand suddenly shot forward, he grabbed the teenager's arm and twisted it behind him. Dan was shocked at the speed and power of the move, one second he was facing the man, the other he was standing with his back to the car, his arm twisted so hard behind his back he could hardly move. He heard Alisa gasp.

__

Jeez, how did we manage to get ourselves into this shit? he thought. 

"Now, I'm going to make this very clear," the man said cruelly, "It isn't you I want. So I'd prefer if you keep out of the way."

Dan decided to act his part out till the last. "Holy fuck, what crawled up your ass and died?!" he asked in bewilderment.

His actions did serve a purpose. The agent had forgotten about Alisa for a second. And she chose that particular second to launch herself at him and make a grab for the gun.

But he was way too fast. The next second Alisa found herself sprawled on the ground a couple of yards away and realized he must have shoved her away. Hard.

Dan was on the ground, too, but closer to their captor. He tried to kick the gun out of his hand. But was unsuccessful. The man, looking more annoyed still, grabbed Dan's foot and gave it a sharp twist. Dan howled in pain.

"SHIT!!" he shouted, "WHAT THE FUCK IS YOUR PROBLEM??!!"

But their captor ignored him, pointing his gun at Alisa.

"Your boyfriend is a very annoying little pest, and I don't want to waste my bullets on him. I don't need him. Now, I'm not gonna repeat this. Get in the car."

Alisa got up and walked forward slowly. Her heart was hammering wildly. Had this been some other situation, she would have known better that to fight this man, but something, something deep within her mind kept on telling her not to obey him. She had to do everything she could to get away. She dimly remembered Jodi's psychic aunt, so many years ago, talking to her about people who would hunt her down and use her because of her gift. This made terrible sense.

Her eyes ablaze with defiance, she stared at the man's dark glasses, but saw nothing except for light reflecting in them. It seemed the man had no eyes, or maybe, she thought, behind those glasses were horrible balls of fire, maybe she was dealing with evil incarnate.

"What the _hell _do you want with me?" she spat.

The man smiled a crooked smile. "I think you know, Miss Raines." 

Alisa felt a chill going down her spine. Whatever may come, didn't want to be ordered around. But what advantage did she seem to have over this man? He seemed to be trained in special combat.

And then she knew. Knew the only chance she had.

Staring at that gun barrel, she concentrated on it, until it grew and seemed to take up her whole field of vision. She tried to collect all her power, like at that moment with the car, months ago, to use it all for one cause. And maybe, at that moment, she opened the doorway for powers she had never known she had.

As she let it all go, the gun suddenly jerked out of the man's hand and flew right at Alisa. With an incredible speed and agility she never knew she had, she dodged to the side, the gun missing her head by inches, then turned sharply, her arm shot out, grabbing the gun in midair, and then shot back, pointing the gun right at the man's face. He was shocked and that slowed him down, just enough.

Alisa paused only for a second, but then, suddenly sure, pulled the trigger, shooting the freak she was sure was some kind of agent right between the eyes.

He fell to the ground, very slowly, it seemed. Alisa had killed a man. She didn't know it was her first. Having always thought she would never kill anyone, she was shocked at how sure she was about this one.

Not having quite gotten over that, Alisa was shocked even more as she saw what happened next. The agent, lying on the concrete, suddenly started morphing. Yes, just morphing! In one second he turned into a young woman.

"What the—" Alisa almost sat down in disbelief.

But then, something stopped her.

The cold feeling of a steel gun barrel being pressed against the back of her head. 

Slowly, very slowly, she turned around.

And had to keep from screaming. The man was right there, behind her, pointing the gun right between her eyes now. 

Alisa was numb, she couldn't utter a word. When she found she still possessed the gift of speech, she said in a voice, that seemed strange and alien and not her own, "No. I just killed you."

"And you haven't thought for a moment before you did that, did you?" the man asked mockingly. "Really, a very nice lady you are. I'm disappointed, Miss Raines. And it wasn't even me you killed."

Alisa wanted to smack him, but knew it wouldn't do any good. 

Meanwhile her captor took out a cell phone and dialed a number, continuing to hold her at gunpoint. He needn't tell her not to move, it was obvious that he could shoot her at least 10 times before she even reached the other end of the lot if she ran.

__

How the hell did that happen?! Alisa thought frantically_. Who is this bastard?! I must be dreaming, that is the only credible explanation._

That made her relax a little. If none of this was real, then nobody could get really hurt.

And that's when she realized that Dan wasn't there anymore. He must have escaped… But how? The agent had apparently broken his ankle. He must have crawled away. But then he'd still be in sight. And besides, she could see no marks on the thin layer of dust and sand covering the concrete that suggested somebody dragging themselves along the ground.

That was when she realized it. How the man turned into someone else when she shot him, how he reappeared behind her, where Dan had been, but wasn't there anymore.

__

And it wasn't even me you killed. The words rang in her brain. So if she was given the opportunity, she wouldn't even be able to kill him. Cause then she'd murder her own boyfriend.

"Yes, I've got her." The agent was saying, "No thank you, I don't need any backup…What?… Who?… Where?… Are you sure?…Now don't bullshit me!…Here?…How many?" Then a relieved sigh. "Nothing I can't handle"

Then, an icy voice came from behind him. "Are you sure?" Alisa gasped as she saw a woman standing behind the agent, with a gun pointed at the back of his head. The next thing she knew, there was a gunshot and the man dropped to the ground, dead.

There's no need to say who he morphed into. 

"NO!" Alisa cried, "That… That was my boyfriend!"

"I'm sorry," said the woman who shot him. She was wearing shiny black leather pants and tank-top, and her pale face contrasted with her jet-black hair. She was wearing equally-eerie sunglasses. "I didn't know." There was no compassion in her voice, though. It was icy, just like when she spoke to the agent.

"Now we have to get you out of here. Get in the car."

Oh great, now _she_ was telling Alisa to get I the car. Everyone seemed to want to boss her around.

"How do I know I should trust you?" Alisa implied, "You just killed my friend, for all I know you could be one of them."

The woman sighed. "I don't have time for this shit. Now any minute another one of those bastards is gonna show up, and you're gonna have to choose, whether you come with me, or with them. And if you want to know about the Matrix, I suggest you come with me."

Alisa's heart skipped a beat. The Matrix! "I'm coming," she said. After all, what did she have to lose?

"You're gonna need this" the woman tossed her a shotgun. "Know how to use it?"

"Kind of"

"Then you better drive."

Alisa jumped over the hood of the car, and got into the driver's seat. Then suddenly a thought occurred to her. "What about my friends?" she asked.

"That's the least of our worries" answered the woman, jumping in beside her. Suddenly two more of those agents ran out of the restaurant building. "Maybe not," she corrected herself, "Drive!"

Alisa stepped on the gas pedal, and wildly spun the wheel. The tires screeched, gravel and dust flew from under them, and the car took off out of the parking lot and down the highway.

The freakiest thing was that the agents started chasing it. Seeing them in the rearview mirror, illuminated by the red taillights, was very disturbing, for never in her life had Alisa seen anyone move that fast.

And they were shooting, too.

"What the hell??!!" Alisa exclaimed, "What are they, some kind of cyborgs?!" 

"Close," answered the woman, slightly amused, "If you go faster, we'll lose them"

Alisa continued pressing the gas pedal until it felt like they were almost flying, the wind whipping into the open window made it impossible to hear anything. Alisa took one hand off the wheel, and rolled it up. It was true, soon they lost the strange men, and now were driving through complete darkness. Beyond the reach of the headlights, darkness enveloped the road, making Alisa uneasy. Another fact that made her uneasy was that she didn't know who her companion was, and why had she come to her rescue. 

But the woman must have been reading her mind. "My name is Trinity. And for the next several hours, I'm boss. You're just gonna have to trust me, Lynx."

Lynx? How had the woman known she was Lynx? Was she with the feds?

"Um, my name is more like Alisa", she said.

Trinity shook her head. "That is the name the Matrix gave you. Lynx is the name you chose for yourself. That makes it truer."

Somehow, to Alisa, that made odd sense. She realized she had a million questions, so she decided to start with the one that had been bugging her for a long time.

"What is this place?" she asked, "I'm figuring you'd know." She shot a glance at her mysterious companion. "It must have something to do with the Matrix."

Trinity took off her shades. Her eyes were a striking ice green color. "It's a paradox," she answered, "An anomaly. A glitch. All I can tell you right now is that you have found a hole in the Matrix." 

((((((((((((((())))))))))))))))))))))((((((((((((((()))))))))))))))))))))(((((((((((((((((()))))))))))))))))

Phew! Now that was long wasn't it? I'll try 2 make the next 1 shorter! Oh btw if the smoking made someone nervous sorry! I personally don't smoke (well there was this once heh heh) but maybe I did in my former lifetime or something. My point is my characters are definitely bad children. ;) 


	7. The Attack

Well you thought I wasn't coming back weren't you??? Actually, my mistake, nobody reviews the story so I'm guessing nobody reads it!! :'( If that is true, I'm the most useless creature in the universe and my toaster has an appointment with the tub!!! bwahahaaaaaaaah) 

Come on, is it really so hard? Review? Please? Please? Review? please please? A great, big please with sugar on top? 

Last time I posted a chapter and I got ONE review! Special thank you to the person who reviewed!! (ohya, the second review doesn't count, cause that person did it cause I had 2 ask them personally to read my mother****** story! I mean what kind of a friend r u if u don't read your best friend's stories???) 

But if anyone is reading this please review, you just have 2 click a couple times, press several keys, and you're done!!

Well that was a loooooooong and booooooooooring note, so I'll just get on with the story!!!

*          *          *

Silver dawn lit up the horizon as they drove into the city. Without any clouds, there was none of the magnificence of the northern sunrise, but still there was beauty in the way the sky turned a silvery gold at the horizon, slowly fading to green, turquoise, and light blue towards the top.

Alisa realized she must have dozed off somewhere along the way, after she and Trinity had switched driving. They had crossed the border into Arizona, and seeing people and civilization was very comforting indeed.

Alisa wondered at how easily she had accepted all the crazy events of the last 24 hours. Maybe somewhere, in the subconscious of her mind, she still thought she was dreaming.

But what if she still was? There was no way of telling. Also, she still couldn't believe that Dan was really dead. It somehow wouldn't store in her brain. It wasn't although she was heartbroken – after all, her and Dan were always a lot more like friends than boyfriend and girlfriend. But still, losing a friend was just as bad.

Alisa was well aware of the tension happening between her and her strange companion. The woman that called herself Trinity had said she had the answers to the questions Alisa asked all her life – yet she would not share them, saying it was not her job. _"I cannot tell you what the Matrix is,"_ she had said, _"You will have to see it for yourself."_

She was also responsible for Dan's death. Deep down inside, of course, Alisa knew that there had been no other way, but Trinity seemed to give it very little thought and brush it aside as though it was nothing. As though she didn't know what it felt like to lose a friend.

Didn't know, or simply didn't care.

Or maybe, she knew it all too well, but pretended not to, not wanting to face it again.

Suddenly, a cell phone rang. Not taking her eyes off the road, Trinity reached into her pocket and exhumed a small black high-tech phone, flipped it open and spoke, "Yes?… What, now?… Squiddies? Shit!… Where's the nearest exit?… Okay… okay, I'm on my way." She closed her cell phone and suddenly spun the wheel sharply to the right, startling Alisa. They turned into a small street, and Trinity parked the car along the side.

"There's been an emergency," Trinity said quickly, "I'll have to leave you for a while."

"What?"

"_Don't _ask any questions." Trinity said briskly and solemnly,  "Just stay in the car, stay low, and don't attract any attention to yourself. Someone will be back for you – either me or one of the others. Oh, and you might need this." She tossed her cell phone to Alisa, jumped out of the car, slammed the door and took off down the street.

"Oh, great," Alisa murmured, "Just great. Now I'm all alone with everyone bossing me around and I'm starting to think this is all a very bad joke."

Joke or not, Alisa had no intention of staying in the car. The keys were still in the ignition, she took them, got out, and locked the car, feeling a bit like a grand auto thief.

The sun had risen by then, and the city was bathed in gold. It wasn't the heavy, liquid gold of yesterday's sunset – it was light and glowing, as though the buildings and the busy streets were painted with watercolor shades of ocher. Especially beautiful were the trees in a nearby park, their translucent leaves glowed, as though as though with a light of their own. Alisa headed for that park, feeling a cool morning breeze blow past. When she saw a small pub with tables right out in the park, the realized she was starving. Fishing in her pocket, she found a twenty. That should be enough.

**Meanwhile, aboard the Nebbuchadnezzar… **

The instant Trinity awoke, she hardly waited for the rod to leave the back of her head before jumping up. "Squiddies?" she repeated, "Where's the source of trouble?"

Tank, as usual, was at the monitors. "I'm not sure, but I'm seeing the little bastards coming up the catacombs to our left. They haven't seen us yet."

"So the _Scavenger_ was right, we do have sentinels" a voice came from the right. Neo entered the room. Then he saw Trinity, and smiled at her. "You're back just in time, how did it go?"

"Took out a couple of agents, got Lynx to a safe spot but as you see I had to leave her." Trinity answered, feeling somewhat less worried now that Neo was here. "She seems to be a very stubborn. Might give us problems. Are you sure she's the right person for us to unplug?"

"I'm sure. Besides, it's not like we have a choice."

"It's not like my opinion matters, but I have a lot of confidence in her." Shift spoke for the first time, without turning around from a monitor he was watching. Trinity hadn't realized he was in the room, it seemed like he had somewhat of a stealthy way of getting around.

"Okay, everybody, get your asses up here!" Morpheus's somewhat strained voice came from the bridge. Shift groaned, but jumped up and made for the stairs leading to the bridge (if that crooked ladder could be referred to as stairs), Trinity close behind him. Tank began to take off him headset, but Neo stopped him.

"You stay here." He commanded, before joining the others.

After they all clambered up to the control bridge, Trinity edged closer to Neo and whispered in his ear, "Do you think Shift has a thing for Lynx?"

Neo grinned at that. "It's possible. After all, _you_ did have a thing for _me_." He turned to look at her, and Trinity smiled, despite the urgent situation. Neo always had a way of making her smile.

"The squiddies are coming up on our left," Morpheus said in his usual calm way, "We've gotta get ready to blow 'em with the EMP." This was nothing more than routine. Why did Trinity suddenly have a funny feeling in her stomach?

Neo mad his way to the front of the bridge as Shift was helping Morpheus land the ship carefully among some ancient debris. As the engines went off, he spoke into the intercom, "Tank, get ready to switch off all power."  

There was a short silence and Tank replied, "Hey, what about the battle pods?"

For a second Neo was puzzled, but then he remembered. On their recent trip to Zion, their somewhat old and tattered ship had been repaired, and a new feature was installed.

The battle pods. Small, spherical one-man pods that worked by the same principle the ship did – they were tiny hovercrafts that could reach great speeds. Each pod had two high – explosive missiles, one attached on either side that could take out any target as long as they hit it directly. Which they always did, thanks to the highly advanced aiming system. 

But there were only three pods. And they were, of course, down in the pod bay. 

"I don't think we have enough time," Neo said, "Besides it's a new weapon, unfamiliar to us."

"But we decided we'd try 'em out the next time we have squiddies!" Tank protested, "Come on, what could happen? This is _routine!_"

Neo sighed and looked over at Morpheus. "I think we should play safe for now," he said. 

"I agree with Morpheus." Trinity piped up, crossing her arms and coming to stand at his side in confirmation. 

"Aw come on!" Tank exclaimed, "We can't be afraid of using new weapons, besides while you guys get to have fun in the Matrix, I just get to sit around watching! I wanna kick some robot freak butt, too!" 

"He's right," Shift spoke suddenly, turning around to face Neo. "We have a new weapon, we gotta use it. It's a war, isn't it? War is a battle of tactics." 

Neo realized Shift was right. "And we cannot use the same tactics all the time." He said. "Cause that way, we'll lose. Tank, get the pods ready." 

A cheerful "Yesss!" was heard from the intercom.  

Neo headed down from the bridge, and the others followed him.

"Wait a minute!" Trinity said, "You don't mean you're going to go after the sentinels, are you?" her usually steely green eyes held concern as she rested her hand on Neo's arm. He hated to upset her, but he realized this time he had to. 

"I do," Neo said, "I have to. It's my job."

That was true. Everyone on the team had a job, and Neo knew very well what his was. Morpheus was the one with the knowledge, the experience, he was the 'brains' of the group. Tank was the one on whom the missions relied – he had to get everyone right where they needed to be, right when they needed to be there. Shift was probably the best hacker of all, good at finding any kind of information, and a great fighter. Trinity was also am amazing fighter, the team wouldn't be right without her, and, of course, she was Neo's woman, and he wouldn't be right without her either. And Neo? He was their leader. He was The One. The one who was supposed to make plans, decisions, and lead all the crazy suicide missions with the goal of saving the world. Everyone believed in him, and without him no mission would go right.

So that's why he knew he had to go. 

"Neo, you're too valuable to us," Trinity said, "We can't let anything happen to you. Let me go instead, I'm more familiar with the machinery."

Neo shook his head solemnly. _I wouldn't live through it if something were to happen to you,_ he thought, but instead he said, "None of you have used this particular model, I was the one testing it at Zion. Besides, nothing can happen to me. Thanks to Trinity, I can't die!" he said the last sentence in a joking tone, but there was some level of truth in it.

"Man, are you so sure about that?" Tank asked, looking his friend in the eye.

"Yes. I am." Neo was sure. He had to be.

"He believes," Morpheus spoke quietly, "And I believe in him. Let him go, Trinity, you cannot shield him from everything." 

Trinity looked at Neo with so much emotion in her eyes, those beautiful eyes, that he thought, tell me to stay and I will. But she didn't. She just brushed a strand of jet-black hair from his face and whispered, "I believe in you, Neo." Then she let go of him. Neo leaned in and gave her a quick kiss, then turned around and strode away towards the pods bay.

"Tank, come with me, you'll get to kick some robot freak butt. Shift, keep watch on us."

As the two of them made their way down to the pod bay, Tank said, "We have very little time. The squiddies would be here any minute, and we have to have all power switched off by then.

Neo nodded in acknowledgement. They climbed down another steep ladder and as he pressed a button on the wall that opened the pod bay doors, there was a hiss and a whirr of hydraulic mechanism as the steel doors slid open, revealing a rather large room with another set of huge doors at the end and three bubble-like structures perched on the floor in a row. 

For a second Neo felt like he's been zapped into a Star Wars movie, but said nothing, because he figured Tank wouldn't know anything about something like that. 

So he said, "I'll take the one on the right, and I'll come out first. You choose your pod and wait here while I take out the first squiddie, come only if I call for help. When the second one comes up, I should be able to take him out as well, and at the same time you will leave the Neb. I'll have no missiles by then and will be returning to the ship as fast as I can, and it's up to you to take out the third one. Then you've got the most important job – watch both our backs with your second missile as backup in case any more show up. Got it?"

"Yes, sir!" Tank joked, and they proceeded to climb into their pods. 

As Neo shut the small, circular pod door and started adjusting the equipment, he couldn't help but start to think. He had said that nothing would ever happen to him. And he believed it, he realized. All young people do, but he wasn't that young anymore at the age of 38, and still that faith was strong in him. He was the One, and he didn't know what made him that – was it the prophecy, was it all pre–arranged in the universe, or was it just the faith of those around him that put him on the path?

"Shift, open the pod bay doors. We're ready to go in." he spoke into the pod's radio system.

Again there was a mechanical whirr and a hiss of air as the pressure equalized. The massive doors at the end of the pod bay were opening.

_Maybe I've just been extremely lucky,_ Neo thought_. But when will my luck run out? When will something bad actually happen to me? When I've served my purpose in this universe? Is it really up to me to save the world, or am I just one of the sticks in the giant wheel?_

The pod bay doors have now completely opened and, after checking with Tank and Shift, Neo 'wheeled' his pod out of the ship. Still musing over his problems, he decided that his existence was similar to walking on a knife-edge, when a little step to the side could kill him. But he was determined to make the best of it as long he had that miraculous ability to stay _on_ that knife-edge.  

But, it was no time for philosophical thoughts, for he has already left the Neb and was hovering in the vast catacombs, feeling like a fly inside a cathedral. Most of the pod was made of material that was transparent from within, but to the outsider it looked like a solid steel ball. 

Neo had a great view of the surroundings, and they were not pretty. The enormous stone tunnel was littered with all kinds of debris, and there were clouds of steam rising from unseen vents. The ancient system still seemed to be working, long after the city above it had been destroyed.

There was a whirr and a snap as all power on the Neb went out, and Neo peered through the gloom at the seemingly lifeless giant, well camouflaged among the rocks and carcasses of dead ships.

A voice in his radio snapped him back to reality. It was Shift talking. "They're coming," he simply stated. 

Neo perched his pod along the side wall to wait for the enemy to appear. He didn't have to wait long. Immediately, two small sentinels appeared out of the tunnel on the left, seeming tiny in the vast space they were floating through. Resembling squids with their long tentacles (hence the name), they were definitely hunting for something. Hunting for signs of activity, signs of life. Hunting for life so they could destroy it.

Of course, they were lifeless machines with no feelings, emotions, but Neo felt as though they enjoyed killing people. He wondered if the advanced computer brains actually had feelings, because human feelings are a product of advanced thought.

Or so some said.

The squiddies haven't noticed the sleeping ship, nor the pod, hidden along the side of the tunnel.

But Neo wasn't going to keep it that way for long. He powered the engines and slid silently along the wall, towards the sentinels. The first squiddie's radar detected movement. It saw the pod. And headed towards it.

_It's time for open battle._

"You doing okay, Neo?" Tank spoke through the radio. 

"So far, so far," Neo replied as he left the tunnel wall and confidently headed right at the squiddie in full thrust.

He could see it coming towards him, its tentacles stretched behind it for less resistance, pure evil, pure destruction, a cold-blooded predator coming for its prey. And yet he was not afraid.

To the people on the Neb it seemed as though the two machines were flying at an incredible speed on a straight collision course in midair, right in the middle of the enormous tunnel.

Neo aimed his right missile carefully, the radar's green cross stopping right in the middle of the squid's head, locking the target, and fired. The pod rocked slightly as the weight of the missile left its side. A white blur, the missile sped towards the sentinel at a thousand miles per hour. 

Neo slowed down his speed considerably. _Now it's going to hit. It's going to hit._

But then, the impossible happened. The missile reached its target in the blink of an eye, but at the last possible second, the squid dodged sideways, avoiding the missile by inches. 

The missile continued on its course until it hit the stone wall and the tunnel was wracked with explosion.

Neo was shocked, and the sentinel used that to catch him off guard. It headed right at him, stretching out its tentacles to grab the pod. 

"Neo, watch out!" Shift called out through the radio.

Regaining his wits, Neo yanked at the controls and dodged right. The squiddie shot past him, itself a missile. 

"Shit, what the fuck was that?!" he exclaimed, "The son of a bitch ducked my missile!"

"Fire again!" Shift said, "And be sure to hit it this time!"

But there was no time to aim, no time to fire. The squiddie was coming right at him again. There was only time to run. Neo dodged again, and shot straight up, confusing his opponent. 

"Tank, this is the emergency situation!" he called, "I need your help!"

"I'm _right there!_" Tank replied.

The sentinel was after Neo again, chasing him further up in a vertical line. Neo was surprised to feel the G-force pressing him into his seat, it was something he left far behind in the world of the Matrix.

But this was the real world. 

He turned his pod upside down, and then quickly descended, shooting down right past the squid. The machine was confused, but only for a moment, then it shot down as well, chasing Neo in a series of figure eights. He didn't notice the long broken fragment of some structure sticking 200 feet up from the bottom of the tunnel like a precipice, until it was too late. He veered right, but the left side of his pod, where the remaining missile was, hit it with a loud clang.

"Shit!" Neo cursed.

The impact must have damaged the propulsion mechanism, for the engine promptly died. Neo wondered if this was ironic or what, but he only had a second to do so, because in the next one, the pod plunged down towards the tunnel's floor. Neo cursed, and frantically worked the controls in vain as the debris – strewn ground rushed up to slap him.

A parachute automatically opened behind the pod to increase drag, so it wasn't descending in free fall. The sentinel followed its bright white bubble downwards.

Neither of them saw a second pod come shooting across tunnel in full thrust. Its trajectory intercepted that of the falling pod and its follower.

"Like it or not, sucker, but you're gonna burn!" Tank spat out as he aimed and fired his missile.

The distracted squiddie never saw it coming. The missile shot towards its target, and a second great explosion wracked the catacombs, this time, destroying the machine. 

Neo's pod kept plunging down, although slower now, thanks to the parachute. Realizing there was nothing he could do, Neo gripped the sides of his seat and shut his eyes. He was scared. He, The One, was scared. Scared because he might not live to save the world. Scared because he might not live to see Trin again. Scared because he could not imagine the whole thing away, he couldn't change the code and make the pod fly again, the things that gave him his power in the Matrix. _This is real as it gets._

The pod hit the ground. The rebound mechanisms worked, and it bounced several times to soften the impact before settling amidst a pile of debris.

As the fog cleared out of Neo's eyes, he realized he was still alive. As he tried to move, he felt a twinge of pain in his head, and when he touched his forehead his hand came back bloody.

Asides from that, he seemed to be generally okay. Suddenly he became aware of a voice yelling in his radio. It was Shift.

"Neo! Do you copy?! Neo! This is the Neb! Shift speaking! Neo, do you copy?!" 

Neo thought of answering, but his mouth was very dry. His tongue wouldn't move. He felt a heaviness in his eyelids. It would feel so good to just close his eyes and give in to the fatigue… His vision was going cloudy again.

He had to answer, didn't he? He had responsibilities. He was the leader, the One, they were waiting for him on the Neb.

But all that seemed far, far away now. A ringing in his ears drowned out all other sounds. The whole world was far away now. Suddenly Neo felt warm. Carefree. He felt the sun on his face. The sun? There was no sun. And yet he was feeling it.

_They must have been wrong,_ he thought. _The clouds had cleared_. He was floating on water, floating far away from everything, from all the cares of this world.

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Dun dun dun dun…  So what's gonna happen?? Is Neo gonna diee????? Well…. It's up to you! 

The more reviews I get on this chapter, the sooner I will post the next one for you to find out!

 I'm sorry, really, I know I'm not being very nice, as a matter of fact I realize I'm being a very MEAN EVIL BITCH, but imagine nobody reviewed _your_ story! Now how would you feel??? 

I kno, I shouldn't be talking, cause I'm the queen of lazy, but still, I'm on the verge of self destruction from lack of revIews! (bwahahaaaaaaaaaah) So if you wanna c the next chapter soon, pllleeeeeeeeeease review!!! Remember: Neo's fate is in YOUR hands!!!!

MUAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!                  


	8. A Close Call

Well, I DIDN'T get as many reviews as I would've liked, but I just realized that with the speed I'm writing the story at It'll be a miracle if I finish before November next year, when Matrix Reloaded comes out. (YAY!!!) So I REALLY have to pick it up, which would be hard with 3 projects and the finals after Xmas… :S 

From now on I'm gonna thank everybody who reviews my story personally at the end of each chapter, so if ya want the honor, REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!!!! Come on, please? My story can't be THAT boring! (If it is someone tell me – please, it's better to be honest!!!) 

Well enough babble HERES THE CHAPTERR!!! (yaaaaay no ones exited)

*          *          *

_"It was us who scorched the sky."_

They must have been wrong. They must have been wrong, because Neo was feeling sunlight.

He was floating on water, slowly drifting away into the sun.

Suddenly, a voice cut into his consciousness. It was a female voice, calling his name, demanding him to answer.

"Neo! Are you there? Can you hear me? Please answer Neo. I know you're allright! You've had an accident, but you're okay, so please answer me _now_!"

The voice was calm and solemn, like steel, but he could feel worry settled deep in it. 

He knew that voice, as well as he knew his own. It was Trinity. She was never the one to go ballistic, to give way to her emotions. He smiled at that.

Trinity. He loved Trinity. He would answer to her.

"Trin?"

His voice sounded hoarse and strange, as though it was not his own. 

A sigh of relief came from the radio, and in the background came Morpheus's voice, "I told you he'd be all right. He's stronger than that."

Neo realized he was coming back, and the pleasant vision of the sun and the sensation of floating on water were gone, like a blanket ripped off of his face. He was back in the pod, back in the world that was too real, hard, and full of pain. His head hurt terribly, and so did his left shoulder.

But he was alive, and Trinity was there, which made it all a hundred times better.

"You've had an accident, Neo," Trinity repeated, still in her calm voice, but not without a tone of relief, "You were being followed by a squiddie, and then crashed into the Big Spike and your pod fell."

Neo was thankful that Trinity had explained the situation, for all that's just happened was really hazy in his mind, but he was more relieved just to hear her voice.

"Yes. I know." He said. It was an effort to get the words out, but he knew he had to. "What happened to the motherfucker? Where is it?"

"Tank took care of it."

Meanwhile, Tank was busy with the second machine. When he took out the one that's chased Neo, the second squiddie snuck up from behind and almost got him, if it wasn't for Shift's warning. He had no time to turn around, aim, and fire, so he decided to play tag with the squiddie. As a from of strategy, he started leading it in circles around the precipice into which Neo had crashed, which was referred to the 'Big Spike', which was to be avoided while navigating through the tunnels.

Going faster and faster, Tank was making the circles tighter and tighter. It was dangerous, but the squid had the disadvantage of its long tentacles. Soon the circles became so tight, no one could tell whether the squid was chasing Tank, or Tank was chasing the squid.

So the hunter became the hunted.

As Tank came dangerously close to the Spike, what he had been waiting for happened – the sentinel's tentacles got caught on it. 

Tank chose that moment to fire. He was too close to his target, so right after firing he yanked the controls madly, shooting straight up just as the missile impacted the sentinel from behind. A third explosion resounded through the catacombs. The burning debris shot into all directions, and some of it reached Tank's pod as it shot up away from the explosion. He heard clanking sounds as some of the debris hit the pod's hull, but did not damage it.

Now two of the machines were finished, but according to the data, there was still a third one lurking somewhere. And Tank didn't have any more missiles.

"Neo?" he called into his radio, praying that his friend was all right.

"Yes, I'm over there, under the spike thing. Look for the white parachute."

"I know where you are, I'm coming for help."

"No," Neo said solemnly, "There isn't anything you can do. Return to the ship. I'll take care of the situation myself."

"And I see you doin' a real good job!" Tank exclaimed, "No man, there ain't no way I'm leaving you here like that. You can climb aboard my pod and then we'll both go back to the ship." Tank headed his pod into Neo's direction.

"Listen, Tank, there's no time for that. Another squiddie's out there, and you're defenseless without your missiles. It'll destroy you in no time. At least I have a missile left, so I've got a chance of survival. Now, I'm not going to repeat this: _Go back to the ship_."

Neo wished he was as sure as he sounded. He couldn't aim the missile from his position and the launch system was fried. He was as defenseless as Tank, with the added fact that he could not get away, but he did not want to sacrifice his friend as well as himself.

Tank was hesistant. "But-"

"Who's the boss here, Tank?" Neo cut him off. "If no one will listen to me, then how the hell is this gonna work?! Now, I _command _you to go back to the Neb."

Tank sighed. "All right, man, I will, but I really hope you know what you're doing. I really do." With that he zoomed off towards the Neb.

_I wish I did, _Neo thought. "The third squiddie is here" Shift spoke through the radio. Immediately, Neo spotted it, coming out of the gloom at the end of the tunnel. Its sensitive radar detected working equipment, and it locked in on the pod. 

It saw Neo. 

He was thinking frantically. As he checked the launch system again, the sign 'System Not Functioning' lit up the screen. Neo cursed angrily and punched the control panel in frustration.

The sentinel was already heading towards him, not making things any easier.

Suddenly, he was struck with an idea. The missile could self-destruct. He could reprogram it in a matter of seconds through the pod computer. If the bomb exploded while the sentinel attacked the pod, it would be destroyed. But so would Neo.

Unless he had time to escape.

"Neo, we're gonna use the EMP now" Shift spoke, "It will disable the pod as well, but don't have a choice."

"No!" Neo commanded, choosing 'Self – Destruct' from the missile options. "Do that only if I tell you, I have a better plan right now."

The screen said, The missile will self-destruct in __ minutes

Neo glanced up from the screen and got a shock – the squiddie was so close he could almost see the details of its front. He thought he saw something that resembled eyes.

Glancing back down, Neo gingerly typed in '00:10' and hit 'set', hoping that 10 seconds would give him enough time to escape.

And so the countdown began.

00:10

Neo turned around to open the pod's door, but realized the lock was jammed.

"Shit!"

00:09

Neo grabbed one of the tools inside the pod and jabbed the lock with it. It caused damage but the lock wouldn't give.

00:08

The tool had a sharp edge. With all his strength, Neo jabbed it into the pod's door. Already damaged, the thin metal of the door was torn.

00:07

Neo continued tearing through the material, making the opening bigger. "Neo, are you clawing your way out of the pod?" Shift asked in surprise.

00:06

Neo didn't answer. He threw the tool down and reached forward with his hands, bending the edges of the hole outwards, to make the opening wide enough for him to fit through. But the sharp edges cut into his hands, drawing blood. He winced in pain. "Fuck!"

00:05

The squiddie was almost on the pod now. Neo grabbed the tool again and furiously pounded the door. A large chunk of it fell of with a loud clank, probably torn along earlier crack lines. At last!

00:04

Neo got up, and, ignoring the sudden searing pain in his bruised shoulder and the cuts on his hands, clambered out through the opening, falling out of the pod.

00:03

He got up and ran. He ran like a madman, jumping over piles of debris, trying to run as fast as he could, mentally counting down to the explosion.

00:02

Neo tripped, fell, rolled, got up and ran again, trying to get as far away from the pod as possible.

00:01

Jumping over a large rusted carcass of something, Neo fell down, hugging the ground behind it, covering his head with his hands. The squiddie has reached the pod and attacked it, not noticing him so far. One second seemed to pass in an eternity.

00:00

BOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The intensity of the sound wave shocked Neo as the fourth explosion took place. Debris showered over him. He lay there, very still, breathing heavily, minutes after it all ended, realizing what a close call it's been. Then he lifted his head as he heard the whirr of engines coming back to life. The Neb was coming towards him. 

*          *          *

Back on board, the first person to greet him was Trinity. She rushed up, and wrapped her arms around him without saying a word. He squeezed her tightly, burying his face in her hair. 

"Welcome back, Neo!" Morpheus greeted, smiling. 

"Boy am I glad to see you again!" Shift exclaimed.

"Hey we thought you were a dead man, nice stunt there!" Tank said, slapping him on the back. "I know it was my fault you almost got killed." He added in a voice full of guilt, "I should have never suggested we use the pods. Come on, someone has to be blamed, blame me."

"No no no, buddy, it's my fault too," Shift cut in, "I was the one talking about all that stupid shit concerning war and tactics-"

"We're not going to blame anyone!" Morpheus spoke solemnly, "It was an unpredicted situation."

"Yeah, I still think you guys were right," Neo said, "Come on, who would've known that those suckers could dodge missiles?"

"Maybe they're getting better," Morpheus said darkly, a concerned look on his face.

"You're hurt," Trinity spoke, touching Neo's forehead. He winced. 

"Yeah, man, you're bleedin' like crazy!" Tank said.

"We have to get you down to sick bay." Trinity said in a no-arguing voice.

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Hey for me that's a short chapter! Hehe

Well here go the special thanx 2 ppl who took the trouble to review: 

Thank you Zaz, I really hope you'll review again! I know this IS a little mary sue but my character's not supposed 2 b perfect as you'll see later she has some serious issues!!

Thank you Satoshi!! And is that a chocolate chip cookie???? Hmm?? Lol

And thank you Jennifer Jolie! Yeah I just kinda hit eyeryone with the telekinetic thing without much explaining I was just making it up as I went along!

Well so far my list ain't big… But I'm hoping It'll grow!!! ^-^

So once again, feedback is essential for an author, so please, love it, hate it, somewhere in between, TELL ME!!!      


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